The Grey NATO – 333 – Slack Crew & A 2025 Part 4 [Watch gifts, best lenses, comfort viewing, and lessons we wish we learned earlier]

Published on Thu, 12 Jun 2025 06:00:00 -0400

Synopsis

In episode 333 of The Graynado podcast, hosts James Stacey and Jason Heaton engage in a wide-ranging Q&A session addressing questions from their Slack community. Topics include their experiences with gifted watches, favorite pieces of furniture, habits they wish they started earlier in life, and gear they regret not buying sooner. James discusses his imminent baby arrival and how it affects their recording schedule. They also touch on camera lens recommendations, cooking traditions, and experiences with watch brand reactions to reviews. The episode showcases the hosts' casual chemistry while providing detailed insights into both watch-related topics and broader lifestyle discussions.

The episode concludes with their "Final Notes" segment where Jason recommends the Irish film "The Quiet Girl" while James shares his experience with a practical water dispensing solution for his cottage. Throughout the episode, they maintain their signature conversational style while delivering thoughtful answers to their community's diverse questions.

Transcript

Speaker
James Stacey Hello and welcome to another episode of The Graynado. It's a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 333. It's got to be a lucky one, and it's proudly brought to you by the always-growing TGN supporter crew. We thank you all so much for your continued support, and if you'd like to support the show, please visit thegraynado.com for more details. My name is James Stacey, and I'm joined as ever by my friend and co-host, Jason Heaton. Jason, how are we doing? I'm doing really well.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I feel like every episode we're like scrambling to get through it because you've got a baby on the way imminently. And it just feels like at some moment, like you're just going to get a shout from the other room. It's time to go.
James Stacey And we're definitely in the I don't even know what the sports scenario is. The red zone. Are we in the red zone? Is that a football thing? I think. Yeah, we're close. We're close to that line. Everything's really good. Everyone's happy. Everyone's healthy, comfortable, all those sorts of things. Um, but yeah, we are, we are at that scenario where like, just before we started recording this episode, I said, Hey, there's a chance we don't run this for two weeks. Like if baby comes tonight, I'm not going to get to this for a little while. Uh, which is why we decided to go with a crew and a man, some really fun questions in this episode, to be clear. I'm pretty excited about it as we, as we got into the prep. Uh, but we do need to pepper these Q and A's into kind of, uh, fill in, uh, the schedule, especially with some of these kind of last minute, uh, possibilities on the horizon. Uh, you know, you, you would hate to have a guest on and then tell them, sorry, it's not going to come out for a few weeks. Right. Yeah. Uh, so we'll, we'll certainly, uh, we've got some great guests for later in the summer that, that, uh, I'm excited about, but this should be a good one. I love our crew and A's. I believe this is volume four for the 2025, uh, crew and A's. So lots of great questions to get to and that sort of thing. But look, what have you been up to? I don't think we have any major show details. I believe the tickets for Toronto Timepiece Show are now available. So if you'd like to come up and do all that sort of stuff again this year, Jason will be here with me. We're going to have a really good time. We're still working on what the programming will look like. But I think it's fairly safe to say that we'll be doing... some sort of an episode, hopefully similar to what we did last year because we had such a good time, as well as an event on one of the evenings. The Saturday night is now the Timepiece Awards, of which I'm one of the jurors, the members of the panel. So it may not be the Saturday night. So if you're planning to come to the show regardless, it probably makes sense to figure out your tickets as those are available today for Saturday and Sunday, it looks like. So hit the show notes for a check into that. It's not a sponsored thing, but we've partnered with Toronto Time Peace Show in the past because we believe in what they're doing. They bring great brands and a really grassroots casual environment to Toronto, to Vancouver. And it's something where Jason and I just had such a blast last year. It's kind of become our chance to hang out for a couple of days and that sort of thing. So very excited for that. That's Saturday, September 20th. So it's that weekend. I would say check that out if you can, and we'll have more details on our programming probably in the next month or so.
Jason Heaton Yeah, and I guess while we're doing housekeeping here, we get questions occasionally from people about TGN merchandise. We've had a bit of a hiatus since we had something, and we can't divulge anything at this point, but just stay tuned. We do have some... really exciting designs and things coming up here probably in the next month or so. So a few weeks to a month. So yeah, stay tuned. I think everyone will be pretty thrilled and happy, happy to have waited for it. Cause it's going to be fun.
James Stacey Yeah, this one's been in the works for a while. We worked with a good buddy of ours and a great designer. The stuff that he's rendered is excellent. And then we were very close to kind of pulling the trigger and getting everything set up when the tariff stuff really kicked off. Yeah. And we wanted to give that a chance for the dust to settle to have some understanding because it's not like Printful can tell you where everything's printed or made. So we don't always have the ability to say that this tariff applies or this tariff doesn't apply or it does it to you or not to you. So... It's a little bit of this ambiguity, but at a certain point, we would like to run this product. It's some pretty cool stuff. So stay tuned for that, and we'll try and make it as clear as possible, like to the extent that we're capable, what to expect from that experience. But yeah, some good stuff on the horizon. How was your last week?
Jason Heaton Uh, up and down. I mean, I, you know, my dog Ruby's been, uh, under the weather, so to speak for the past, I'd say five days now with, um, with the runs. I don't want to get too graphic here, but I've spent numerous mornings. This is a family show. I've spent, I've spent numerous mornings, uh, cleaning up after her. Um, unfortunately, uh, she just hasn't been able to make it outside during the night or whatever. And so it's been a bit of a. Bit of a parenting experience for me. But it seems to be she's on the up and up. I dropped off a sample at the vet yesterday and got results back saying there are no parasites, no Giardia or anything weird like that. So it sounds like it's just an upset stomach and she's back to kind of her energy levels are up and seems to be doing a little bit better. So fingers crossed that that that corrects itself for everybody's sake.
James Stacey Give her a course of bottled water like when you come back from some far-off place with not-so-great tap water and see how she does.
Jason Heaton Yeah, right. Somebody asked me, like, can you give a dog Pepto-Bismol? And I was like, I'm not sure if that's something that people do. But anyway, we can move on from that topic. I have no idea. Um, other than that, I've, I've spent a lot of time, um, I guess the term the Brits use is fettling, um, with, uh, with the Land Rover, with my defender. Um, just, you know, these, these kind of accumulated tasks that, that I kind of keep this mental list going and things that kind of bug me when I'm driving it. And most of it has to do with. noise mitigation so i had put some soundproofing material this stuff called kill mat um it's this kind of shiny uh material with with adhesive on one side that you kind of put under the floor mats and against the bulkhead at the front and stuff like that so i did that and then i The steering wheel is rubbing on the shroud behind it. So I took the steering wheel off and kind of jiggled around with that a little bit to clear up that rubbing sound. And then it's just lots of little things that I was putting off and finally took some time to kind of putz with that. So that's been oddly satisfying. You know, these little jobs that... when you have a few hours to kill and you just, you just kind of want to do something mindless and listen to a podcast or something while you're fiddling with something. So, um, I did a little bit of that and managed to put the steering wheel on fairly crooked when I put it back on. So I have to do that today, take it off and restraighten it. I suddenly realized I was running an errand yesterday and, you know, driving with the steering wheel at a right angle to where it should be. And that was kind of, it's like a sailboat. Maybe I should just put a, like a ship's wheel on it. Tiller. Tiller.
James Stacey Anyway, that's been my life. You got an anchor to chalk the wheels.
Jason Heaton Yeah, right. That's funny.
James Stacey Yeah, I was messing around with the Jeep yesterday, skinned most of the knuckles, still having a lot of trouble with this ground problem. Oh, geez. So I was able, I pulled the ground off, removed it, reestablished it, soldered it, the rest of it. Put it back on. And in the process, I gained one more light of the three that was missing. So I must have done something wrong or there must be something broken further down that I can't see. So I think I might have to take like my... Because like the turn signals work, but the running light doesn't. The little markers in the fender, which is almost certainly a ground issue as they're wired off of the turn signal. And then the one turn signal, the running light in that turn signal functions the way it should because they should glow all the time and then have a separate bulb that fires for the turn signal. But the other turn signal only does the signal. It doesn't do the running light. Oh, yeah. So I've got two running lights on the passenger side and nothing on the driver side. And yeah, I took the old ground was totally deteriorated. Like when I pulled it off and actually like twisted it to see if I could get a needle nose on the little eyelet. It just kind of came off like it all just broke off. And it was all rusted and gross. So I was able to clean that up and re-strip the wires and try and figure them out. But I must have either done something wrong, like maybe the soldering wasn't clean enough or it broke in the crimping process and I may have to start over again. At a certain point, I'm going to run out of wire. It's a very short lead that goes to the ground point. But I don't know. To be clear, I really don't know what I'm doing. I just keep trying it and doing my best to not yet keep some skin on my knuckles and that sort of thing.
Jason Heaton I don't know about you. That's the one aspect of DIY car repair that I do not like, electrical stuff. It drives me crazy. It's kind of like back in... Back in school, you know, I always enjoyed, you know, biology class because it's stuff you can put your hands on and like see with your your eyes. But electricity to me is like chemistry or trigonometry or something. It's just it's just beyond my comprehension. And I just it's just maddening to me. I just I can never quite get it right. Do you enjoy enjoy wiring?
James Stacey Yes and no. I mean, I think my experience with it is more like things like computers or maybe even household wiring. I have more experience with that. And then you get into cars and everything's filthy, right? And the quality of what Chrysler and Jeep were doing in 2011, not that great. Hence, this well-known issue with their quality of grounds. um and then you know like all of the settings in which i might be even only you know barely passable a c plus at soldering yeah doesn't exist when you're leaning into a vehicle and you've got the iron and you've got the solder in one hand nothing's holding together and the rest of it so it's it's just a learning experience it's kind of like doing it brand new and i'm out there you know saying mean things under my breath to myself and skin and knuckles so It is what it is. The turn signals work so I can drive the car. That's fine. But it is kind of an annoying thing that I've tried to fix several times.
Jason Heaton Well, make sure you have it all together by the time the baby's on the way and then you have to zip off to the hospital and you have the bumper all torn apart or something.
James Stacey Yeah, well, I was worried last night because when the ground came off in my hand, I was like, well, I'm committed. I have to fix something here. I don't think I can drive it without it. I don't know what happens. Maybe just no lights, but that wouldn't be ideal either. It's always nice to have these projects. There is a point where they stop feeling like projects and they start feeling like, I don't know, Sisyphus rolling the stone uphill. But yeah, and then as far as my week, it's been good. It wasn't just messing around with the Jeep. That was really just last night. Over the weekend, my brother got married. So Tim, who's been on the show before, he got married. You know, he's one half the host of another kind of beloved podcast in our world, the Single Serving Cinema. And so he got married. So we did that on Friday. It was super nice, really fun, really fun time. And then Sarah and I scooted up to the cottage for a day and a bit because obviously we're running out of time to get a few more things done there. I got my weather station online and running, which is super fun, and it's up and going. I think I sent you the link if you want to know the weather up at the cottage. I can't tell if it rained yesterday. I think it did, and the weather station didn't track the rain, so I might have to recheck the rain. or maybe where I installed it. But it's super easy to move. It just screws in to whatever you have available. But it's up and running, and that's kind of fun. It was a neat little project, really. I have yet to really have a full understanding of whether or not this was worth the time, the effort, and the $100. But I'm at least finding it entertaining. And once I figured out how to... how to kind of get like weather underground and weather cloud linked up with it through this weird little like web server that my iPhone really did not want to connect to. Once I got in there, it was really good. Yeah, no sweat. So kind of a fun thing to have and certainly I think useful for that area because again, the amount of... weather data in the area that's informing our local sort of forecast, it's quite a big spread. So you can kind of have different weather happening locally than it's happening on the phone. Sometimes it's quite accurate, but not always. So we thought this might be kind of a fun, fun update.
Jason Heaton I'm sure your whole family appreciates this, too. It's like you want to go to the cottage this weekend and you can kind of see what's going on there. And I mean, this is it's so cool because it's like it's actual real time, like I'm watching the wind change. As I'm looking at this, it's really cool.
James Stacey Yeah, it's a bit of a laugh because it feels like something that the internet would have had in 2002. Get your own weather station. You figure this out. Now, of course, you go like, well, Apple or Android just tells me the weather and it's always accurate. And like in Toronto, it is. It can tell me like within two minutes if it's going to be raining. Uh, but it isn't, it isn't quite the same up there in the experience of the cottage is so weather driven that I just thought even, even if this ends up being little more than a kind of nerdy toy to enjoy. Um, But there's some value in it. If you've got kids, I have two very pasty, pale kids. It's nice to know the UV risk. That's our thing. So it's tracking that kind of stuff. And then even just to have a scope on what's happening with the barometric pressure, you can have some idea of whether or not weather is trending up or down, which is kind of cool as well. Yeah. Yeah. Then the last thing I was kind of dealing with for this weekend, because obviously recording this on a Tuesday, is I thought it'd be cool to watch Le Mans this weekend. Should be a fun one. And in the past, I've watched it on the Motor Trend app and I was going to do a whole little mention and final notes. You should go spend the five bucks or whatever and watch Le Mans. Turns out I'm not really sure how you watch it in Canada. It doesn't look like it's on the Motor Trend app anymore. And then, you know, sort of beyond that, it doesn't look like there's any natural place for it. So from what I could tell, if it matters and we can carry this conversation on in the Slack, I'm sure there's better solutions. It might be on Crave, which is a Canadian streaming platform, but maybe not until the next day, which is like, who cares? and because you want to watch it live that's kind of the point of these sorts of things and then you know i think the other option is you can use the like wec app and you get a free feed maybe with a vpn maybe not i haven't tested it yet and where you can then listen to the french feed and then you just have to run the english feed like through another browser or something like that so That might be the solution. I'm not really sure, but maybe someone in Slack can advise on the easiest way of watching this. I really don't mind paying for it. In the past, I would sign up for a month of Motor Trend On Demand and watch Le Mans and a bunch of their other content and then shut the subscription off until the next round. But we'll have to see. It should be an interesting one for sure. And might be, for all I know, another opportunity for kind of a major move by Rolex. I haven't heard anything, but obviously they used Le Mans back a couple years ago to announce the Daytona. And with TAG largely taking over, TAG and LVMH taking over Formula 1, I have to assume Le Mans, Sebring, Daytona, these remain kind of pillar events for Rolex. So it could be exciting.
Jason Heaton Yeah, fun to fund, especially a 24-hour race. I guess you kind of make a weekend out of it. Exactly, yeah, yeah. Plan your sleep and meals.
James Stacey I've never managed to watch that much. But I have enjoyed, you know, kind of...
Jason Heaton dipping in and out while at the cottage or something like that where you can you can kind of watch an hour or two here there and see where things are going and then yeah put a tracker on your phone and check that when you're out doing other stuff and then you get back and watch another a little bit more and that sort of thing so cool well uh let's uh let's do a quick wrist check and then jump into the crew and a for sure i don't think anyone's going to be surprised by yours true enough yeah i can i can make a very quick work of this um still rocking the uh the pelagos fxd Um, probably in the last week of, of my full month wearing it, I kind of lost track at this point and, and I don't really care. It's, it's what I kind of leave on all the time and I have really no desire to switch up these days. So that's, uh, that's what I'm wearing. I've switched the straps a few times, but I'm back on the original, uh, hook and loop, you know, olive with the red stripe that came with it. And, uh, yeah, it's great. How about you? You've got kind of with the same formula, slightly different.
James Stacey yep yep i'm still wearing the cwc cwn1 and the plan is that this would be the watch i'll wear for uh you know the birth of the baby uh the pending baby uh which is good the each each daughter or my two daughters so far have each had a different watch um and then this will be a nice outing for you know a watch that has a lot of sentimental value to me in general Uh, so yeah, just, just kind of wearing that. So I don't have to, I don't want to think like, Hey, where is that? I should go grab it. That sort of thing. Like, you know, when it's time to go, we're just going to go. And, uh, so I'm, I'm kind of keeping this on my wrist to currently have it on the Bonetto Cinturini rubber NATO for maximum comfort. Yeah. Nice. Yeah, for sure. Alright, well let's get into a little bit of Slack crew and A. So yeah, the simple explanation is just that we normally do a monthly episode with Q&A where people call in and leave a voice memo and we answer those questions. But we always had these very fascinating sort of conversations going on in the Slack and we wanted to try to capture that. and go the opposite direction so instead of going behind the paywall take some of the slack ideas and feedback and comments and questions and that sort of thing and move it over to a more grand you know non-paid episode and so that's how these function we've been doing them for a couple years uh typically we get the better part of like 70 80 plus questions so you end up with seven or eight of these over the course of the year it's a nice opportunity to fill out it's a nice opportunity to kind of keep keep a finger on the pulse of what's going on in the slack And we can definitely jump right into sort of our first question, which is from Robert Gillison, and it's about gifting watches. So he says, we frequently discuss the issues attached to gifting watches, but we do not frequently discuss being on the receiving end of the gift of a watch. For Christmas 2024, my excellent daughter, who lives and works in Japan, gifted me an Issei Miyake watch. The watch was designed by Satoshi Wada, who has a history in car design and gives off a bit of a Porsche design vibe. This is not a watch I would have picked for myself, but because of who gave it to me, I love it. Have either of the two of you ever been on the receiving end of a watch gift under similar circumstances where the watch is maybe not your vibe, but the giver transforms it into an important piece? If so, what was the watch? So Jason, what do you think there for Robert's question all about being gifted a watch and how that kind of changes the scope?
Jason Heaton You know, I haven't actually, I think because... My watch interest coincided with my work in the watch business for so long now that I don't know if anybody has felt bold enough to really give me the gift of a watch other than you with the Ironman, which was just last fall. I think that lies outside the scope of this question because I loved it from the beginning and so I didn't have the scenario that Robert's describing. But no, I can't think of a specific example where I've been given a watch and then been like... yeah, you know, this isn't really my thing, but it's grown on me. I've certainly had that situation with other gifts in general, whether it's, you know, clothing or a pen or a, you know, sort of a culinary thing or jacket or, you know, things like that over the years. And then that sort of sentimental value does preclude any, you know, personal taste. And you kind of just maybe you don't wear it often or use it often, but you... you get sort of a warm feeling when you deploy it. A watch is a little bit different because the intention is that, you know, you would wear it regularly. And then there's always that awkwardness of when you do see that person, like, do you wear it even if you don't like it or whatever? But no, I haven't had a specific instance along the lines of what Robert has described. What about you?
James Stacey Yeah, I think so. I mean, I don't know about a watch I flat out wouldn't like, but there's definitely lots of opportunities for me where I've had scenarios where the version of the watch is one that I wouldn't have picked, but because someone else picked it for me, or maybe even just sent it in for loan, I expanded my sort of scope. But the two that really come to mind are both gifts, not watches I was loaned or anything like that. The first one is actually the CWC that you gave me, the Royal Navy, with the polished case and the tan loom. I would never have bought that for myself. I would have bought a different version, something a little bit less vintage inspired. But the truth is that's the one I like, and it's the one that kind of absolutely cemented my love of and my appreciation for the Royal Navy Diver and the way they wear and all the stuff we talk about all the time. And kind of to the same element, I would say that my C4th Vancouver LE. So I have the black limited edition C4th. And I think if Jason Gallop, who worked with Jason Lim to give me that watch as I left Vancouver, as like a reminder of sort of our Vancouver watch crew and that sort of thing, If it had come to me as like, hey, we would love you to have one of these, I probably would have bought one, to be clear. But I would have bought the standard stainless steel version and then probably not looked or cared or thought about the black case as much. But now that I have the black one and that's the one I got, I absolutely adore it. I love it. It's probably my favorite all-black watch that I own. So yeah, those would be a couple of the options where the people behind it and their love of watches and their appreciation of watches and their taste becomes partly mine. Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I can see that, especially with that Seaforth. It just, it doesn't look like a watch that I would have associated with you and your taste, but, um, you know, the way you've talked about it and when I've seen you wear it, like it's very clear that, that the meaning of it just really kind of takes over any, you know, specific aesthetic, uh, taste when it comes to it. So yeah, that's a good, that's a good example. All right. Well, thanks for that question, Robert. Let's move on to a question from Andrew Jones, who is asking about kind of a three camera lens selection and then kind of a go anywhere, do anything lens that we would recommend. He asks, a staple question we see across watch media is the X number of watches collection and the one go anywhere, do anything, the gotta watch that you would own. Taking that format to cameras, what would you say is the best? Three camera lens combo and the one gotta go anywhere, do anything lens that you would recommend. Brand is agnostic. James, I think you're going to have more more to say on this one. What would you say is your your kind of three lens set up?
James Stacey Yeah, for sure. I think it's an interesting question. I would say like in this scenario, let's not bother talking about the cameras because most of the core focal lengths that are available are made by all the brands. And I don't think the camera body, more now than ever in sort of like the history of cameras, the camera body means less and less. You're paying for the glass. Yeah. And you can put a lens that's 40, 50 years old on a new camera. You can put a lens from a different brand on most new mirrorless cameras, that sort of thing. So whether you shoot a Canon, Nikon, Leica, Fuji, some of them are a little bit more limited, like a Fuji option might not have the same... depending on the sensor and the way it's designed and that sort of thing. But a lot of these are totally interchangeable. And in my mind, the camera will age out. Even in the course of time that we've been making this show, I've gone through two camera systems, three camera systems in two different brands. And these things will age out. They will change. But if you buy the glass really well... that stuff will at least hold its value and may even just remain in your possession as you move through other platforms. I run Canon glass, I run vintage glass, I run obviously Leica and Sigma and Panasonic glass on my SL. And that's one of the great kind of benefits of the mirrorless platform is the flexibility. So let's stick with what I think is like the... the way I would see more like focal length catering rather than camera and lens. For me, it comes down to having something that's sort of wide, like a 35. That could be as wide as like a 24, I think. Yeah. As long as it's a fast... semi-wide natural perspective lens so something around 35 and you know preferably f2 or faster that's going to give you a huge amount of flexibility that you could use for a ton of different options and and use cases and there's really no scenario where that isn't going to work you could be on a vacation you could be trying to take pictures of your family you And if you pick a lens that operates down within 30 centimeters for minimum focal length, you can probably shoot a wrist shot with it as well. So if that matters, which it does to me, so that would go in there. The next one for me would be a 50, which is kind of like the number. If this was more like what's your one lens, probably just go 50. A little harder to do a wrist shot on a 50. You're going to get a little closer to the wrist with that sort of reach. So again, it depends on the minimum focusing distance, which will be from, theoretically, from the sensor, not from the tip of the lens. Obviously, double check that when you're doing your math. But I love a 50, especially a really fast 50. I have one... or no, I have a Planar T 2.0 from Zeiss, which I like very much. That's kind of my main 50 millimeter. To be clear, I have a couple different 35s, whether you want something like what's on my M, I have a 35 Sumo Lux for the M, and then I have a 35 with autofocus that I use for all sorts of stuff for the SL. So I definitely believe in those two a lot. And then I think for the third, you either have to go super wide, like 21 or wider, just to get like a totally different perspective, or Get yourself some zoom. 135 or further is what I would say. So if you want to stick with prime lenses and you still want to be able to shoot portraits and that sort of thing, go with a 135. It's a weird focal length that's a lot of fun. 90 is good too. But 135 gives you a ton of reach over the other two lenses. For me, and this is what I did recently, I would sacrifice some image quality and go for reach and get like, I have a 100 to 400 Sigma. Which, like, I'm not going to be able to shoot that at f2.8. It's not a $12,000 lens. It's like a $1,000 lens. So, you know, it runs at a more narrow field of view or, sorry, more narrow aperture. But it does, it gives you a ton of options where at 35-50 and then 100-400 covered by three lenses. Fantastic. You could shoot just about anything with those. You could go from motorsports to watches to people to animals to travel, all that kind of stuff. And then if we're finally to, you know, maybe this answer is longer than was needed, but for the go anywhere, do anything, it really depends on your budget. If you have a budget constraint, I would lean on your core. So go same brand as your camera, if you can, and go with an 18 to 55. These are usually considered kit lenses. If you buy an entry level Canon or Nikon, there's a good chance that you'll be offered the option of a kit that comes with an 18 to 55. I probably shot the first several years of my work in watches on an 18 to 55 Canon because it gave me flexibility. I could shoot a person at 55. I could shoot a watch or whatever backed off. It had good minimum focus distancing and that sort of thing. If you have a higher budget and want to push towards the more premium option, the premium spec of an 18-55 is a 24-70, made by almost every major brand as usually one of their premiums. In my case, I use the Sigma Art 24-70, which is identical to the Leica. from an interior standpoint, but obviously it says Sigma and that kind of thing on the outside is quite a bit cheaper. And like a 24-7, you can do almost anything with it. You know, it's going to be difficult to do birds or sports photography from the stands, but outside of the reach, you have the flexibility to do everything from travel to a wrist shot to portraits to that kind of stuff. And you'll see 24 to 70 be quite popular in versatile style shooting like weddings and, you know, sporting events and things like that.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I don't have much different to offer than you. I was going to I was right with you there on the 35 and the 50. Those are those are my first two choices. And then for the third, I was going to go 24 to 70. I was just going to I've got I've had long lenses. I've got a 400. I've got a 200, etc. I've got a 120. But like. I was a little torn for the, the go anywhere, do anything lens between just saying like, put the 24 to 70 on and just like take that everywhere. Um, but I, I'm going to say the 35, the 35 is, you know, 24 to 70s can be heavy. They're, they're longer. They're just, they often are super. And then to like carry around and tuck in a bag, et cetera. I think even on like, like an old school SLR, whether it's a film one or, or a DSLR, or if you're going mirrorless, um, Like 35s can be really compact and really comfortable to just kind of carry around. And then that that focal length, I think, isn't what they say is kind of the closest to kind of the human eye. Or am I thinking maybe it's a little wider than that? But it's regardless, it's just a nice kind of whether it's street photography or watches or or event stuff or just kind of trying to blend in a little bit and just shoot without being conspicuous or carrying around a heavy lens. I think a 35 is a nice. prime lens choice to just go anywhere and do anything with. So those are my picks.
James Stacey Yeah, I don't think you can ever go wrong with a 35. I believe that the focal length of the main lens on an iPhone is about 28. So there's that. 28, 24 to 28-ish is also where we find most of Leica's Q. So it is that natural perspective is there in the high 20s, low 50s. High 20s to the mid 30s, I think these are quite kind of commonly understood. And a lot of the photos, like if you have your favorite photo, there's a decent chance it was shot on a 35. Yeah. Not necessarily, but there's a decent chance. And if it's a famous photo, an even better chance. Just because that is kind of the focal length of journalism for a long time. Sometimes it's a little wider, obviously. There's no rule here. It just is what it is. But yeah, it's hard to beat a 35 for sure. Yeah. Fun question. Next up, we have one from Baz Bremner, who asks a question that it's got multiple stages, but it's essentially about cooking. So he asks, what are the dishes that you cook that are a multi-generational kind of family tradition that you've mastered? Be a firm favorite that you or your immediate family have added or demanded that you mastered. C, a dish that's basically only possible with help but is absolutely worth the effort. And finally, one dish you really can't master or at least enjoy tinkering with slash are always looking to add that extra something. So kind of a complicated question. Jason, if it's okay with you, I'll go first, as I have a shorter answer, kind of like your perspective on the camera. I don't cook that much. So for a multi-generational family tradition, I don't have one. I just don't cook that. And to be fair, I don't even like cooking. I will. I do like being helpful, and it's a good way to be helpful. And there are things that I learned how to cook, so they became my thing to cook when we do them. So, I mean, if you go to B, which is kind of a family favorite that's often demanded, that is where sometimes these will come up for me. And for me, that's probably either chicken wings or like chicken katsu, like breaded chicken. And it could be more the Italian style or more the Japanese style, depending on what the family wants. But the process is largely similar. So I'd say those are kind of the ones that I weigh in on. And then as far as ones that aren't only possible with help, I'm not taking on those sorts of recipes. It's just so far beyond my skill. I run the smoker. That's about my job. I'm very thankful and appreciative that Sarah is not only quite a talented cook and chef and that sort of thing, but also enjoys making things and gets a lot of personal fulfillment out of it. having food prepared for people. And I get to kind of be the sous chef. I'm more of the helper in those scenarios. So I can leave these other questions to Jason, but definitely a fascinating question. Maybe more fascinating if I was a more interesting cook.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I'll jump into this one. In terms of multi-generational family traditions, I had a little hard time thinking about this one because my mom was a great cook, and I have fond memories of the dishes she made. But I'm a different sort of cook than her, I think. But there is one thing that I inherited from her, and that was her chocolate chip cookie recipe. I remember, gosh, I was in my twenties or something. And, um, I just had this hankering, this kind of craving for, for her cookies. And I remember, you know, I don't remember what form of communication we were using back then. It's probably wasn't email. Um, just kind of asking her for, you know, what did, how did you make those cookies? And maybe it's that sort of fondness you have for. things from your childhood. You remember them differently. And I probably thought they were imbued with some sort of magic ingredient or something like that. And anyway, she, she wrote down the recipe for me and I have it and I've made them, you know, sporadically ever since, you know, maybe once or twice a year, usually to, to give people and they're, they're pretty simple. There's nothing, it's probably the same way. A lot of people have made chocolate chip cookies, but, um, I, I, I like them. And I would say that that's kind of the one thing that I've. carried forward. And then in terms of the basically only possible with help question, you know, not a ton, but one thing that my girlfriend and I have been making a lot lately are just homemade pizzas at home. And it is a collaborative effort. And the secret is, rather than making the dough... um we buy oversized just plain flour tortillas like like thin flour tortillas and then put them on a cast iron skillet on the stove top and get the pan nice and hot and then just start putting the toppings on while the tortilla is starting to cook in the pan and then once you get all your toppings on you have to prep them all first then you and you see it start to melt and stuff you put it under the broiler in the oven for like three minutes and it's done and it's just you can make like three or four with different toppings you know the other night we did you know pear with caramelized onion and you know some herbs and whatever and then we did one with olives and some um, tomato sauce and some other stuff. And, and it's just, it's just a nice collaborative meal to make with somebody. Um, so that's, that's that answer. And then in terms of the one dish I can't master, um, I think I'd always, I'd, I'd love to be able to make sushi one day. And I, I've, I used to have kind of lost touch with them, some friends from Japan. And we did make sushi with them once and it was fun, but to take it on myself would be next level. And that's one of those dishes or one of that type of cuisine that I would rather just leave to the professionals and just go and enjoy it. And it's a good excuse for an outing to go and get sushi somewhere. So those are my answers to those questions. That's a fun question, Boz. Every once in a while, we get these cooking-related questions, and they are kind of a nice alternative to kind of watches and gear. Totally. So thanks for that. Yeah.
James Stacey Next one up is one from Jeff Balassi, who asked kind of a two-part question. The first one is, what is your favorite individual episode of TV from last year? And the second one is, what movie or show do you turn on when you're sick and you'd like to feel better? So Jason, you want to go first for favorite episode of a TV show from last year?
Jason Heaton Yeah, and I'm sorry I don't have the specific episode. I would almost say every episode of a show that you and I both adored, and that was The Agency with Michael Fassbender and Richard Gere. It was such a good show. I can't actually pinpoint a specific episode because now it's been a while, so I'd have to go back and look at the individual episode descriptions. I tend to like to binge shows these days. I just wait until all the episodes are available and then watch. But that was one that it just felt old-fashioned to sit and watch on a weekly basis as they were coming out. I remember you and I would write to each other and be like, there's a new agency out. We'd get really excited and watch the next episode and just rave about it. I would say if you haven't seen that show, as people have mentioned and as we've talked about it, it's based on French series from earlier called The Bureau, which was also excellent. But if you haven't seen it, put it on your list for this weekend. The Agency, just tremendous. And I apologize for not having a specific episode, but I would say every single one of them. Do you want to jump in on the episode question first?
James Stacey Yeah, I can. So mine's also the agency. It would be season one, episode two, Wooden Duck. This is when the therapist shows up and it's one of the few episodes that really spends time in the building. And I think it was one of the more intelligent episodes of the year because it allows you to dig into these characters when the show still feels brand new. and before it starts to get really complicated. Obviously, I have no interest in giving anything away, but there's some incredible internal CAA stuff, even though the idea of a wooden duck is a reference to sort of a tradecraft thing. This is where we first see Martian starting to get paranoid about his relationship with another character in the show. I really don't want to give anything away for people who haven't seen any of this. That would be a bummer to me because it was just this show is incredible. And I actually had to go back and like read a few episode synopsis because I don't even think in terms of episodes anymore. Like I could probably tell you my favorite episode of a miniseries. But when we're talking about a show, I'll often be watching them like in big stacks. Oh, yeah. So like one episode versus another one, I couldn't really tell you. but I could probably give you some of my favorite episodes of 30 Rock or that sort of thing. Because back in the day, you'd watch those a week at a time and they had more separation. And I think with the agency, I think I watched the first three in one sitting. But if you really need to pull at it, there's a couple incredible episodes of Slow Horses. Yeah, for sure. Basically, any of the seasons, the last three episodes could be amazing. and have all that you kind of want. They're funny. They're violent. They're exciting. It's this or that. It's second desk against these people. It's all that kind of stuff. But for me, it would be Wooden Duck, which is the second episode of season one of The Agency.
Jason Heaton Good call. Can't wait for next season.
James Stacey Yeah. Oh, dude, I'm super excited, especially with how this season ended. Again, not giving anything away. They really throw a little bit of a cliffhanger in as to what's going to happen, which is just amazing. And then as far as the other side of Jeff's question, what do you like to watch if you're just looking for sort of the comfort food of television or movies?
Jason Heaton You know, the easy answer for me is any Bond film. But specifically, I think the best of the bunch was still 2006's Casino Royale. I just watch that time and again. I can just... queue up any... In the old days, it was like that Sunday afternoon thing where you'd turn on the TV and there was a Bond film that was an hour into it and you could just sit and watch however much of it you wanted to and it'd be fine because you know how it's going to go. But if I want... My comfort food of movies is Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. That's another movie that... I kind of just watch almost just segments of it, just if I'm in the mood. And I just think that movie has such a. rich sort of vibe to it and just kind of the aesthetic and the music and the quietness of it. Um, and the acting, I mean, it's, it's just a tremendous, tremendous film and it's, it's one I watch quite a bit. Um, but yeah, um, in terms of kind of light, you know, a lighter movie that, you know, makes me feel better, I would probably say a Bond film, specifically Casino Royale. How about you? It's got to be Heat, right, for you?
James Stacey Heat's definitely in there, for sure. But I would say there's probably a lot. I love going back and finding Top Gear clips I forgot about. Episodes of Top Gear where they had to build a new vehicle. They needed to make an amphibious vehicle. That's a great one, for example, if you haven't seen it. endlessly rewatchable silly funny uh all that kind of stuff all almost always available on youtube uh first season of true detective um you know blade runner 2049 heat money ball has become a real one for me there's a few stand-up specials i'll put on because they just like it's it's a weird thing to say but i understand it now because people will say it about tgn it they can just kind of put me to sleep oh like it it's enough it's enough conversation like a stand-up special
Jason Heaton especially one where i know a lot of the jokes so like i don't have to be laughing like like even if i love it it's not like i'm dying by the surprise of of the joke uh yeah that kind of stuff there's there's i would say there's a lot for sure fun questions this week let's move on to one from brendan walsh who says similar to the excellent speed video discussed in final notes what are some habits that you wish you had started earlier in life james you want to tackle that first
James Stacey It's tough because I don't think I have any of the sort of normal ones. In my 20s, I was a fairly active exerciser. I'm always on time. Some of the stuff that Pumphrey brings up in that video don't really apply to me. So I'm not sure that necessarily it's all one-to-one. But the one that I will say that I work on even now is maintaining friendships. I'm just not good at it. Yeah. And and when you meet someone who is, it's such a delight. Like, I think most people are somewhere in the middle and then you'll meet someone who's like a real connector. They're good at staying on top of people and sending texts and checking in and these sorts of things. And it's just like not even remotely the way I'm wired. Yeah. So what ends up is you end up with a lot of kind of loose friendships and maybe a couple really deep ones that don't require any maintenance. And that's probably because the other person is similar to me. But yeah, I would say that a skill that I'm attempting to get better at and definitely wish I had been better at and gotten better at when I was younger is maintaining friendships for sure. yeah that's a good one really good yeah i could say the same because they do take work and i think it's it's so easy to try and put yourself in a position where you don't like for me it's so easy to go like i well i don't want that yeah but the truth is i do you know when you're social and you have fun and you have friends it's a great feeling and then every now and then you realize like oh i don't like i don't have that much going on because you haven't made the investment yeah It's not like grade school where you're just like, that kid kind of looks like me or he's sitting next to me or his t-shirt is the same t-shirt I own. He's my best friend now. It's not like that anymore. As an adult, it takes actual effort and it's just not something I'm good at. It's a muscle that I let really atrophy over time.
Jason Heaton Well, I could say the same, but I'm going to pick something different. And for me, it is, I don't pull out my elder statesman card often on the show, but I will suggest to those of you that are younger than me in the listenership in their audience, start young, younger with mobility, exercising and stretching. I think it's something that. I took for granted when I was younger and just I've always been into fitness and exercise and strength training and running and cycling and swimming and all this stuff. But I just didn't pay any attention to mobility, exercising or stretching, yoga, whatever you want to call it. And I think now that I'm of a certain age, it's I don't want to say it's caught up with me, but now I'm kind of learning all over again how important it is and how. tight my hips get and how sitting at a desk or just day-to-day life, just how tight my shoulders get and my neck and things like that. And then when I kind of do get into a rhythm of doing regular stretching, just taking 10-15 minutes to just do a series of exercises. how good it feels. And if I'm in a groove and I do it for a couple of weeks straight, it makes a huge difference. So I wish I had been doing it all along, but can't have regrets, can't go back. And so I'm just going to make a point of doing it going forward. And I wish I had started earlier in life with that, for sure.
James Stacey Yeah, that's a good one. And I think a really good one to carry over like in terms of Convo back to the Slack. I think we'll get lots of great kind of perspective on things people believe now made a big difference in their life, but they didn't learn until kind of later. So next up, we've got one from Analog Connection who says, do you have a piece of furniture at home that you love? It could be for practical reasons or sentimental ones or both. And then he extends that to say, and is there a piece of furniture that you don't have yet, but you would love to acquire someday? Jason, any strong feelings on furniture, grails or otherwise?
Jason Heaton You know, I'm not a furniture guy. I mean, I've got most of my furniture here is, you know, Ikea or, you know, back, you know, 20, 20 plus years ago when I moved into this house, it was there were a couple of kind of nicer stores around before Ikea ever even arrived here that. um that are just nice it's kind of i guess sort of a modern clean line scandinavian look with a lot of the stuff but i i don't have specific designers i don't seek out um you know vintage furniture i have an admiration for you know, a lot of good Scandinavian design, but I just, I don't collect it. I don't really pay much attention to it. I do have this interesting kind of rattan kind of little writing desk that, gosh, my, I think my parents had it or maybe they got it for me when I was a kid that kind of feels like something right out of, you know, something you'd find in the tropics or on some kind of, uh, you know, plunk down in a canvas tent on an African safari, you know, and you'd sit there and peck out something on a typewriter or whatever. And I've, I've got that in the corner of a bedroom and that, that has a bit of sentimental, sentimental value to it for me. But, um, Yeah, not much else in terms of furniture. I will say, and I've talked about it before, I have a century-old mantel clock that I had refurbished that belonged to my grandparents. And I do have a fondness for that and wind it up every once a week. And it chimes on the hour and keeps pretty good time. And I don't know if you'd consider that furniture, but it's a home furnishing. And that's kind of a favorite of mine. What about you? I've been in your house. You have some pretty cool stuff, some nice chairs and good furniture.
James Stacey Yeah, so Sarah's a much bigger sort of fan and acolyte of furniture and understanding furniture and, you know, like a prolific thrifter. So we definitely have some sort of interesting pieces going to strewn around the house, none of which I have like a really strong understanding of. I like the way they look. They make me happy, that sort of thing. I have a chair that I bought when I lived in Vancouver from West Elm. I bought just a leather – I'm sure there's a name for the type of chair. It's like a leather swoopy sort of chair, a swivel base, tan leather that I got like on Scratch and Dent. It had a scratch in the leather down the back of it, not even that bad of a one, and picked it up. And that's been kind of like my chair for a decade. So that's probably as close as I would have to having like one piece of furniture that I really love would be that one. And then – As for one I might want to acquire someday, like Jason, do you have like a, you know, you hope to one day sell a Land Rover and pick up an Eames chair or something like that or not that worried about it?
Jason Heaton Um, not so much. I mean, I do like, I do like the Ames chairs. I like the Wasili chair, which is, isn't terribly comfortable if you, if you, if you really sit in it, but it's, um, yeah, I, I have an admiration for that, but I don't think I really, I, I'm kind of stingy when it comes to, you know, you pick and choose how you want to spend bigger, bigger money and the furniture is just, hasn't been mine.
James Stacey Yeah, that's fair enough. I would say I don't really have anything on the grail list. I don't focus on furniture that strongly, kind of similar to Jason. But I would say if it's fair, if I could extend a little bit, I would love a set of JBL L100 Century speakers at some point. Oh, yeah. And I think with the orange cover and the integrated stand, they kind of have a furniture-like vibe. So I hope that's enough to squeak in analog connection. I love those ones, especially the orange cover. Blue would be fine, too. Uh, but I love the orange cover and yeah, the integrated stands and that sort of thing. They have such a, they really feel like a, like a great speaker in a cozy room, if that makes sense.
Jason Heaton Yeah.
James Stacey Yeah.
Jason Heaton Cool. All right. Thanks for that. Man, we're really, we're really covering some ground here. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Camera lenses, furniture, cooking. It's great. Hey, look, here's a question about watches. Imagine that. Graham likes watches from a very appropriately named listener. He asks, in your time in the watch world, has a brand ever been unhappy with a review, comment, or feedback you've given them in relation to a watch? I'm sure this has happened to you, right?
James Stacey All the time. Yeah. I would say it happens quite often, even to today. I would say it's usually pretty rare that a brand will confront you about it. It's much more likely that they'll never speak to you again. Or three years later, you'll be in a meeting together and they'll remember the like three words you used in a review that was 1500 words long to three negative things that you might have mentioned or pieces of criticism. I mean, like I personally have written some glowing reviews that include light criticism, knowledgeable, confined, not punching down proper light criticism. And that's been enough to burn the bridge. And I mean, it happens. It happens all the time. And the other thing I would say that people maybe don't realize either, not only that, you know, brands pour over every word. Some brands don't like you could you could write a glowing review about one of their watches and then not cover the next three. And they'll never talk to you again. Like if. Oh, yeah. It's like an all like it's an all or nothing. You have to love everything. So it's not. And I don't really worry myself with this. It's not that I'm above it or that it doesn't bother me. I think it's a weird perspective for the brands, for most brands. And you meet brands that are the opposite. They don't care. They're appreciative of the coverage. They'll take the feedback. They'll go through the comments and use it to maybe think about how to refine the product or change or understand that perspective. And look, the Hodinkee audience and Hodinkee editors certainly represent one perspective in a world that's full of a lot of perspectives on watch design and quality and that sort of thing. But I don't give it a lot of... concern, simply because if I'm confident in the position I take in a story, their response is kind of secondary. I didn't write the story for the brand. I wrote the story for the audience. And so I'd be more concerned with, you know, did I get something wrong? That's way more of a floating concern for me. I got something wrong, a typo. um i missed a core piece of the perspective i'm not perfect right and sometimes you're doing a lot of these stories at once and it's difficult to miss what might be the best part or the coolest thing and that's all a major concern for me whether or not a brand is upset like obviously you don't want to upset people unnecessarily it's a very small industry a lot of the same people move from one job to another so that like a mistake an error a lapse in judgment a rude comment That will follow you. It just simply will. And so it's wise to be, you know, it's wise to be cognizant of that being a possibility, but it doesn't really shape like it just is what it is. It's one of those things, like I've said before on the show, like a lot of times you learn a lot about somebody or a brand or or in anything when you say no to them. And it's kind of the same thing. Like some brands, totally open to criticism, commentary. They understand that their product's not going to be for others. Other brands are 100% assured that everything they do is amazing. And that's how it should be perceived. And it's just, you know, it's a difficult perspective to match with the content. So you just have to be ready for the fact that people will be mad.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I've always been amazed at how interesting, especially the difference between, on the one hand, you have really small brands that are often, in some cases, single-person brands and the pride that their owners and founders put into developing a product and how... um on the one hand you get some that are very over managing their the messaging and kind of want to make sure that you you have every detail and push back on anything they'll they'll kind of over explain why they did it a certain way and then just don't kind of recognize that it's it's an aesthetic thing and if i don't like it or if it's just a flaw or whatever i'm going to call it out but on the other hand you get a lot that that are very open to that like you like you said even with these really small brands where it's like okay i get that i like your feedback and we'll take it into consideration and then on the other end of the spectrum you get the big, you know, largely Swiss brands that, um, there's, I'm just amazed at how kind of thin skinned a lot of them are and how, you know, just, they just don't take anything even remotely negative, um, the right way. And it's, it's not that these are, you know, by and large watches are well-made in this world, especially nowadays. I mean, there's very little, and it's a lot of it comes down to aesthetic choice. It's not really things like, accuracy much anymore or design flaws and things like that. It really largely comes down to aesthetic choices. The one example I have with a brand that was unhappy with a review was, I'm not going to name names at this point out of respect for... the outlet I wrote for and for the brand. But, you know, I had a, I had a watch from a major Swiss brand that I took diving and, and some people will remember this and, and it just, uh, it, it, a piece fell off and it leaked and it was just, I, I, up until that point, I admired it. I liked the watch and it worked really well. And, um, I kind of wrote the good, the bad and the ugly about it. And I don't, I think it was a really even handed review, but it kind of blew up into kind of a major, uh, major issue. Um, and it was not fun to have to deal with. Um, and it's sort of, it was sort of an eye opener at that point. Um, just to kind of, um, be cognizant of that, uh, going forward. Um, but other than that, you know, I've had very few incidents like that, but yeah, it's, uh, it's very strange to this industry, you know, for something that's kind of a largely optional luxury product, um, how seriously people can, can take, uh, take feedback.
James Stacey Yeah, and I think the other thing to consider is that the one thing you will learn if you get into this line of work is that every brand deeply believes that they should be Rolex. Yeah. And they have everything that would get them to be Rolex, and it's just that the media didn't give them the right coverage or something like that, or whatever other 20, 30 happenstance sort of scenarios. And at the same time, while I can appreciate that, I always find the most reasonable perspective on watches are from watch people who start their own brand. A lot of these big brands are led by accountants and CEO types and people who may or may not even love watches to begin with. They might be good at the business. Maybe they like the products. Maybe they're a family member or something like that. So it's always helpful to try and zoom out as far as possible, but that doesn't mean you're going to understand the perspective. And it can be difficult to try and explain to a brand that makes maybe one good watch and a bunch of sort of indifferent watches, like watches that don't really have an audience in the enthusiast space, that you absolutely adore this watch, but you probably won't do anything about these ones. Yeah, yeah. Because the other thing that people typically don't realize is like, and to be fair, I probably didn't even appreciate it until I took over as EIC with Hodinkee. is you start to be concerned with like, well, so let's say we're talking about a fourth or fifth rate watch. Like, it's fine. There's nothing wrong with the watch, but it's not exciting. It's not interesting. It doesn't have a cult following, that sort of thing. If I assign that to an editor, and that's what they do for the next several hours, and then it gets X number of views... That's fine. But if we do this, it could be a different watch from the same brand could get 10 times the view. My thing is still to make something that people want to read. We're not just here to be the record of what's going on. That's what the brand's website's for or whatever. Right. It's a complicated thing that can be borderline annoying, sometimes heartbreaking, because it can be brands that you love that simply cannot accept any perspective but their own, and they become impossible to work with. Or they don't want to ever see your side, so they just stop telling you about new watches. Right, yeah. And that's the double-edged sword of access journalism, I guess, right? Like, to a certain extent, I have to get the press release to cover a watch, let alone see the watch, right? So it's a complicated and sometimes annoying thing. But a fair question, Graham. Thanks so much for that.
Jason Heaton All right. Let's move on to another watch question from Greg Galvin, who says, do you have a watch that you swooned after, got, and then regretted? I've got a quick answer to this one. I don't really. More of my regrets come from ones that I sold that I wish I had kept. And we've talked about those in the past. Uh, nothing that I really swooned over. I mean, swooning over is a pretty big, pretty big thing. I would say that my white dialed Omega Seamaster that I had a couple of years ago that I had and wore quite a bit for a year, um, was a watch that I, I wouldn't say swooned over, but I was, I was pretty smitten with that. And I loved it when I had it. Um, and, uh, but I, I didn't regret it, but I did move on from it. I, I just, I kind of lost it. I wouldn't say I fell out of love with it, but it was, it was just time, but none that I've regretted. How about you? I don't get the sense you have a lot of regret either.
James Stacey Regret is kind of tough. I've definitely bought watches and then found that I didn't like them as much as I wanted to. I don't think I've ever bought one where I go like, wow, this was a huge mistake. I think I take my time. Usually I don't really buy watches on a whim. And if I did, like if I have if I buy like I'm sure if I go back over the list of every watch of our own, there's a couple two, three hundred dollar things in there that I bought and went, man, this ain't for me. I think I've talked about in the past. I bought a really nice white G-Shock 5600, like the M&M watch. Oh, sure. Right. Got it in. Hated it. Like, I think I think I kept it for 25 minutes and like put it back in the box, put it back on watch you seek, got my money and kept moving. Nothing against G-Shock or the white watch, just I don't like white watches as it turns out, and that's how I learned. The other examples that come to mind of watches I was pumped about and then maybe over time, maybe even quite quickly, lost that pump, the Mission to Mars moonswatch. Oh. I was very excited to get it, wore it for a couple of days, kind of found that it didn't work on any strap at all. And I don't wear white straps. So this goes back to the white G-Shock. So I, you know, eventually I got rid of that watch as well. And I imagine if I'd bought like the Jupiter, like that brand, the brown, orange kind of Mojave color spec, I might still have that watch. Because they are entertaining, fun things to wear. I'm such a strap nerd. It has to have like... I love the task of having a watch or maybe many watches and constantly kind of being like, this is the perfect strap for this watch or that sort of thing. It's fun. And then, yeah, I would say the other ones is I definitely experienced or bought watches and then... in fairly short order, my taste shifted. Like I remember I bought my Braymont Solo, which is a 43 millimeter watch. And then within a couple of years, I realized like, oh, I love this watch, but I really would love it at 40. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? And it largely like I ended up flipping it because it felt kind of big or not flipping it. I guess it's not a flip if I had it for years, but still. Yeah. I would say those are the examples that leap to mind for me. Good one, Greg.
Jason Heaton Let's close out with one more from Alberto Guerrero who says, what is the single piece of gear you own that you wish you had got five years earlier? Tough one. I had to think about this one a bit. Do you have one that comes to mind?
James Stacey I actually have a few. A bunch of them are my desk. So the walking pad, the standing desk, and the giant monitor. Oh, yeah. These are all things I wish I had bought at the start of the pandemic, not four years later. Sure. A great desk chair is another good one on this topic. And, but the walking pad, man, like I'm down almost 50 pounds in six or seven months. And that's clearly weight my body didn't want on it. And that's, I have not done anything other than I walk every day for an hour.
Jason Heaton It's so easy.
James Stacey I get my, I get some emails done. Maybe I watch a YouTube video, whatever it is. Like, it's not that it's just, it's nice and easy and simple and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, no, that's, that's no sweat at all. Um, a really good boots. Mm-hmm. Like, I've got my Red Wings, and I absolutely adore them, and I just wish I had bought them even earlier and had had those as an option. And even before I bought my Red Wings, I bought a pair of Allen Edmund Carson City boots, I believe they're called, and I still wear those all the time. Really good boots are worth the money. They're one of the few things where, like... I'm not going to sit here and tell you that it doesn't feel like a lot to spend $500 on a pair of iron Rangers, but do it. And then five years later, decide if it still feels like a lot. Cause it really doesn't. Mine are a decade old at this point. Yeah. I just, I just love them. That's a good one. The other one. Oh, the other one that would come to mind if we give, let's do a watch one is the Aqualand.
Jason Heaton Oh, sure.
James Stacey Jason, you were largely the reason I grew a fondness for the Aqualand. I had bought other versions of Citizen watches to try and capture some of the appeal, but get around the size and the hump on the side. And then it turns out the size and the hump on the side, I love. And I could have been wearing Aqualands for the last 20 years.
Jason Heaton So yeah, those are the ones that come to my mind for sure. That's a good one. For me, a lot of it comes down to kind of... being too frugal or, or, or overthinking things like tools, like good tools. And I think the one, the one thing that, that made a big difference for me was, um, I think this was on your recommendation. Maybe I can't remember, but, um, the DeWalt 20 volt, you know, cordless drill. Like I just, I, Oh yeah. I'm so pleased with that thing. It's like so good, like good equipment, um, just like can make all the difference. And, and I, you know, as we all know, those of you listening, like we will, um, will have no problem. Like when a new watch comes out, you're sort of smitten by it. You do a little bit rationalization and you'll plunk down two grand and get your watch. I haven't done that in a long time, but I know what that's like. But when it comes to buying a $200 tool or something, you'll just hem and haw and wait for years to get it and then wonder why you didn't do it earlier. This was a piece of gear actually that I inherited from my dad that I didn't buy, but I can't imagine living without it now. And that is a sawzall or, you know, reciprocating saw. It's just so handy. It's just, I remember, I have this kind of weird fetish for pallets, like wooden pallets. I just like to pick them up whenever I see them and stack them in the yard and find uses for them. but I always used to like pry them apart with a pry bar, like all those nails and then pull the nails out by hand and whatever. Yep. Now, like I take this saws all and I just saw buzz right down through all the nails and everything. And I'm done in a few minutes and I've got this stack of wood that I can do stuff with. Um, it's, it's just made all the difference. It's just such a handy tool. And I think just tools in general, like just having a good portable workbench, a good, you know, I've got like a benchtop grinder for sharpening stuff. The good drill I mentioned. Inside the house, like I had this kind of heavy, clunky Dyson vacuum cleaner for years that was good for a while, but it was just kind of cumbersome. And just last year, late last year, I bought from a German brand, Miele, M-I-E-L-E, vacuum cleaner. It's fantastic. I actually enjoy vacuuming now. I just love this thing. And again, it was probably a $300 vacuum cleaner. I mean, not an insignificant amount of money. But I'll have this thing for 20 years and it's going to serve me really well. And I just love how simple and how light it is and how versatile it is. And, you know, these might be all boring things. Maybe, you know, Alberto, when you were asking, you were hoping for, you know, a good backpack or whatever. But for me, it's household stuff and it's tools because those are the things that I do tend to wait and hem and haw about and not buy. and then regret buying. Like when it comes to watches and gear, I'm the buy once, cry once. So I just go out and buy the good stuff right off the bat. So I don't really have a lot of regret or wistfulness for that sort of thing. But yeah, that's where I come down on that.
James Stacey Tools are definitely a good call. Definitely worth some of these be the buy once, cry once scenario for sure. So good call for sure. And thank you so much for all of the questions in this outing. That'll be all we're going to do for this one. I figure we probably have at least three more volumes, maybe four, to close out the year. Yeah. So that's going to be great. Some really awesome questions. I really enjoyed this. This is just a huge amount of variety that we wouldn't necessarily always find. But I thought that was a really fun mix. And it's nice because we're not cherry picking these. These are literally in order of how they were asked. We're working off like a crude copy and paste from the Slack. But yeah, I think that went well. And it's probably worth jumping into some final notes. You want to go first?
Jason Heaton Yeah, you know, this is kind of an odd one for TGN, but I watched a movie last week called The Quiet Girl that I had never heard of, but it was from 2022. It's an Irish film. Actually, it's actually in spoken Irish, which apparently is quite rare for feature films, especially ones that were up for awards. And I'll just read the blurb from IMDb. In rural Ireland, a quiet, neglected girl is sent away from her dysfunctional family to live with relatives for the summer where she blossoms and learns what it is to be loved. And it was just really a beautiful kind of melancholy, fairly kind of sad film, but had a glimmer of hope to it that I appreciated. And I think, you know, we mentioned earlier that we're coming into the week of Father's Day. And while I would not say this is a... a great Father's Day movie. There is an element to it of the difference between, as the blurb I read mentions, you know, the sort of difference between this dysfunctional family from which this girl comes to kind of this loving, quiet, supportive household that she lives in for a summer. And it's just a beautiful kind of quiet film. The girl who plays the main character is a young girl and she has very few kind of speaking lines. as the title might suggest. I think it was her debut performance and she just does an amazing job. So it's a beautiful film. I think it was based on a novella or a short story or something. Yeah, I recommend it. It's a nice film. So check it out, The Quiet Girl.
James Stacey Yeah, that's great. Good suggestion. We'll have that in the show notes for everybody. Mine this week almost couldn't be more different. This is one of these things that we bought on a whim and it turned out to be useful. And I figure there's some people in the audience that would get some use for this. So obviously at the cottage, we've got a very old property. It has running water, but it's pulled from the lake in a cistern. And Sarah and I are pretty stickler about water quality. So for years, we've been using... these msr uh field filters which do a really nice job um but take quite some time to say fill a nemo or something like that and if you just want some drinking water you want to make a tea or a coffee or that sort of thing we finally figured we would go with like the five gallon water dispenser jugs like from an office if you've ever had like a you know a water cooler at an office that you worked at And I had never really dipped into this. We started looking into these systems where they can heat and cool the water. And I was like, let's just see if this is actually something that works for us first. And it turns out you can buy just a lid, essentially, that goes on the bottle that's a little water pump on demand. You charge it with USB so you can put this anywhere I want in my house, wherever it's convenient. Again, there's not a lot of power plugs in a building built 110 years ago. that sort of thing. And so you can just kind of build it out, but you've just got the, so you just have the jug and then this thing has a spout and then like a head and then a tube that goes down into the jug and just a button on the top and you click the button and it pumps water. You click it again and it stops pumping. It's very simple. They're about $20, maybe even a little less in the US. And if you were going on like a larger camping trip with a family, like where you would need a considerable amount of water, pretty awesome if you've got an old cabin if you're already in the mode of like moving these five gallon jugs back and forth and and kind of doing that for your water this could be a nice backup to another system or or a chance to try this out but we just for the money there's it's one of these things these cheap like you know inexpensive electronic gadget from amazon or timu or that sort of thing that just ended up working like it's been flawless since we got it we've we've put five five gallons of water through it so far this summer and it's just been really handy to have for when we need on-demand water is I'm still building a water system and trying to decide between like possibly even drilling a well or filtering from the cistern, all these sorts of options. So I'm still learning and this allows us to have some water while I learn.
Jason Heaton Yeah, yeah. And maybe a piece of gear that you regret not getting five years earlier.
James Stacey Quite possible, yeah. This would have made things a lot easier over the last couple of years because we have waited a long time to fill NEMOs, which is like a camping pump system. The NEMO is amazing, but the MSR field filter is such a good product, but it's not fast. You're not filtering a ton of water through that system, so you'd sit it out there for an hour and let it fill up. maybe you know unfortunately the nemo would be empty right when you needed it and then you've got this delay so yeah yeah a nice option if that might suit your use case uh and we're just we expected so little for what we paid yeah um and then it just worked it did exactly what it said and then every now and then you just have to charge it uh which is easy and pretty straightforward and that sort of thing so yeah that's uh that's my pick for final notes maybe a bit of a weird one But if you don't need a Joy Hill five-gallon water bottle dispenser, the link is in the show notes if you do. But if you don't, feel free to watch The Quiet Girl. Yeah. Sounds like a good one as well. Nice.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey Very cool. So there you go. One whole episode.
Jason Heaton Yep. A good one. Thanks to everyone who wrote in those questions. And, you know, look, that thread was closed a while back. So the next opportunity to contribute to our Slack crew in A will be in 2026. But we have plenty more to get to in the coming months. So as always, thanks so much for listening. If you want to subscribe to the show notes, get into the comments for each episode, or consider supporting the show directly and maybe even grab a new TGN signed NATO, please visit thegraynado.com. Music throughout is Siesta by Jazzar via the free music archive.
James Stacey And we leave you with this quote from Franklin D. Roosevelt, who said, when you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.