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The Grey NATO – 356 – The 2025 TGN Holiday Gift Guide

Published on Thu, 04 Dec 2025 06:00:00 -0500

Synopsis

In Episode 356 of "The Grey Native," hosts James Stacey and Jason Heaton present their annual holiday gift guide for 2025. They structure their recommendations in three price categories: stocking stuffers under $50, proper gifts under $250, and "break the bank" options with no price limit. The hosts share personal anecdotes from their Thanksgiving travels, including meetups with listeners and family visits. Their gift recommendations include practical items like Swiss Army knives, coffee beans, and magazine subscriptions in the stocking stuffer category; coffee makers and nautical-themed salt and pepper mills in the mid-range; and high-end experiences like watchmaking classes or a limited edition clock in the premium category. Throughout the episode, they emphasize quality, craftsmanship, and gifts that have lasting value or educational components.

Transcript

Speaker
James Stacey Hello and welcome to another episode of the Grey Native. It's a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving gear, and most certainly watches, this episode 356. 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 thegraynato.com for more details. My name is James Stacy, and I'm joined, as ever, by my friend and co-host, Jason Heaton. Hey Jason, how are we doing? I'm doing pretty well. You know, I was just as you were tal
Jason Heaton king, I was getting this distinctive odor of um not related to you at all, um, to pipe tobacco. And Oh really? And I was trying to figure out where it was coming from and I realized I'm using um a a mic that I haven't used in a while. It's this SMB fifty eight that we used to use regularly and I'm not at home right now. So I I carry it in this the the pouch that that came with you know it came in the Shure S H U And I realized I think I've used that same pouch to store some pipe tobacco in. And so the the microphone has taken on this lovely smell of of pipe tobacco. So it's kind of how very fall winter for you. Yeah, right. Yeah. But other than that, I'm I'm doing great. I'm back from as RU from uh some Thanksgiving travel and lots of driving and and it's proper winter now.
James Stacey It uh it sure is. I I shoveled uh for the first time this morning, had to clean the car off. We're into, you know, warming up the car season and uh and all that kind of thing. But it was uh it was great to end November uh with Thanksgiving. And of course that's also the end of the tactile turn TGN CPN one pre-orders. So we did want to put a big shout out both to Tactile Turn for partnering with us on the pen, but also to everyone who picked one up. Um I can now say I'm I'm a proud owner. Mine were was waiting uh for me uh in in uh Pennsylvania and I've got it here on my desk and I'm absolutely loving it. I'm I'm looking for excuses to write stuff down and and that sort of thing. So that's been great. And I've been uh really enjoying the sort of companion stickers we did uh with them as well, you know, with some great design work by uh Stacom industry. So a big shout out to uh tactile turn and Staycom for working with us on that project. Yeah, I'm so thrilled
Jason Heaton with the the packaging and this and the stickers and that um dazzle camo pattern with the orange that that we did for the CWN one packaging and then for this. I I'm kind of addicted to it and I it it's a shame that it's restricted to the the packaging and you know we w don't have any immediate plans to to spin that off but, um I know a few people have said, Oh, you know, NATO straps or some you know, put it on a article of clothing or a you know, I could see like a winter scarf in that sort of pattern. I I just I I love that that orange uh orange camo we did. It's great and and of course it's on the clip of the pen but uh yeah I'm thrilled with how those turned out and and yeah thanks to to tactile turn and to everybody that ordered. I hope everybody's enjoying getting those. They seem to be shipping um quite regularly and ever
James Stacey ybody's getting them and enjoyed Yeah, I'll be excited when they've all been delivered and and people can just be out out enjoying them. But we saw some stuff on the Slack from people who like write all day long. Yeah. And they were like very excited to have this and and and that feels pretty good. So I'm I'm I'm pretty thrilled by it. And they're definitely a fun thing to have and a a a nice little sort of remembrance of both the show and and and that sort of thing. So uh so how was your Thanksgiving?
Jason Heaton Yeah it was good. It was varied. Uh uh Christy and I drove over to across Wisconsin to town called Oshkosh, which isn't far from where I spent some years of my childhood in Appleton and uh my folks are living over there now. This was their first fall, first year living there, and uh we went and visited them and my sister lives over there with with her family. So that was fun. That was kind of a traditional big family Thanksgiving and then on um the Friday after we hopped in the car and drove down to Oak Park, Illinois, so um suburb of Chicago, and kind of threaded the needle between snowstorms. It snowed the day before we drove to Oshkosh and then we had a a day, uh dry day to drive down to Oak Park and got into our Airbnb and then it snowed all day Saturday and we were there with uh Christy's daughter and her boyfriend who were meeting us halfway from Ann Arbor, Michigan. And it was a well placed I Oak Park is a lovely community. You know, we I I'd been there many, many years ago and um had visited the Frank Lloyd Wright home and studio um a long time ago and very vague memories of it. So we booked a tour and did that on uh Saturday. And y anybody that is on the fence or or in the Chicago area looking for something to do, I highly recommend that. It's uh it was his kind of first home that he lived in when he was, I think, twenty one. He designed it. It's pretty incredible. And then uh added on his uh first architecture studio. And it's just a it's a beautifully designed house and it was really nice to walk there in the snow and visit it in the winter when there was snowfalling and see some of the other houses around the neighborhood that were designed by him as well. So it was a it was a fun, uh fun long weekend and then, you know, less fun was the seven hour drive um back from Chicago. Not in snow. It was dry roads, but it was I you know I'd forgotten I'd forgotten about Sunday, holiday, weekend travel. I just haven't done that so long and to kind of be on the interstate in the middle of nowhere and just have it bumper to bumper traffic was really kind of annoying, but yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the price you pay. So for sure. And yours, you were you had a good time, it sounds like, and had some weather of your own and uh meet up with some TGN folks
James Stacey too, right? Yep. Yeah. So we we drove down very early Thursday morning. It was a really smooth drive down, which uh I'm very thankful for. Minimal weather, you know, a little bit of bad weather on the south side of Buffalo, which feels like maybe that's constant this time of year. I'm not sure. I've I don't think I've ever driven through there without some sort of uh snow effect happening. And um got down to PA, had a a really lovely Thanksgiving with uh Sarah's family, can't complain about that at all. Food was great, awesome to see all of her family, of course. And then on Saturday we did our I think this is the third, it might be the four it's the fourth time we've done it. I think it's the third time we've done a Thanksgiving uh hangout at uh Triumph Brewery in New Hope. And it was awesome. I mean it it was the same as the last two times that we did it. Uh so big shout out to Jan for uh helping set that up. Uh and we had a handful of folks uh both from the Slack and a few people from Nod and a couple of my brothers in law uh came with as well and uh I wanted to say a big thank you to everybody for showing them a good time and answering a ton of questions. They were very they're very, very new to watches and hadn't ever been to like a watch hangout before. Uh and they both had a really good time. So yeah, I I thought it was uh uh just great um you know a chance to uh sit and chat and have a a couple of good beers and and the the folks at Triumph really give us a an incredible space where it's it's a little bit private. You're on the back side of the bar. There's no real foot traffic or like cross traffic in that area. So people are are pretty comfortable putting their watches down. And we had uh yes some some great watches. Finally got to see uh an M100 from uh vertex. Uh Frank had his there and it looked great. I'm I'm hooked on it. That's a an exceptional watch. He has on a really cool kind of like ladder style bracelet. Uh so yeah we hit we had a really good time. I I I had a blast and then uh Sunday we had a a quick brunch uh with Sarah's family and then took the drive home and uh you know, we made it down with two stops in about nine hours. Uh not too bad, especially with a a five month old baby. Um, but going back took more like eleven um between stops and then some traffic and then some fairly active weather scenarios in uh in again just south of Buffalo and then we were able to actually stop and have uh have a quick bite with uh some of my family who live just on the other side of Niagara. Uh my brothers and uh and my sister uh were all kind of there after seeing a movie. So we we made the most of it, but it did kind of stretch out. So uh we got home fairly late and uh and I've just been kind of resting and working since you know it's Tuesday of uh the early December's crazy, you know what I mean? But yeah, I'm I always enjoy uh this time of year, but there is that crunch for I would say like the first 10 or 12 days of December feel like a sprint. Um you're just trying to get 'cause there's always some stuff you didn't get to. Like I'm kind of embarrassed. I'm looking back at my year and obviously it was it's my first year as as EIC at Hodenke. We also had our son was born, so I had a couple of months off, but there's a bunch of stories that I had intended to write. Like I was going back over notes and old Apple notes files and things like that. And like I just never got to them. I still haven't written a proper story about the the gnomos. I didn't I in my mind I went to find a link because we talked about the Zin six one three on a QA that we put out uh yesterday. I thought I had written a story. I went to find a link to my own story. And I had written part of the story and I have the photos and I just never finished it and published it. Uh so it's it's been a it's been a days of a year. So I I think some of that I might try and figure out, you know, maybe Zinn would loan me a six one three for a little while or or or something like that and I could do a proper a proper full-on review with some travel and and maybe even a dive or something like that could be kind of cool because I that's a watch I I do really like. But yeah I'm going back and realizing just how busy and kind of frantic of a year it's been. So uh hop hopefully we get a nice break towards the end and then and then kick it off strong in January like always.
Jason Heaton Well speaking of uh kind of winter themed new release watches, you're wearing something new today that uh that we can talk about that that also has a white dial and is uh brand new. Why don't you tell us about that? And risk check
James Stacey . Yeah, exactly. It's it's kind of exciting. Um so actually the I'll I'll give you one hint if you want to be even ahead of this. If you look at um the holiday to gift guide last year, we spoke about the topper LE DOXA for the 300 with the loom dial in the navy blue accents or the dark blue accents. Yeah. And this year they're back with a 250 T version, so a GMT and 40 millimeters. And uh and technically this watch doesn't actually get announced until tomorrow. Uh, but Topper said if you want to mention it on the show, feel free, it's not not that big a deal. Uh, so we do have permission to break embargo on this one. It's a hundred-piece LE. I've got it in my hands for a quick little story I'm gonna run. So if you're listening to this on Thursday, you'll be able to see the photos and everything the day later. Uh it's a standard 250 GMT, one of my favorite watches of the year. So I was happy to see that. And in this case you get sort of a um a a a mostly matte white dial with these uh blue accents, sort of sea or deep, deep ocean sort of bluey accents. And it's uh 40 millimeters. It's uh the 42.9 millimeters lug to lug, 250 meters water resistance, uh 50 hour power reserve. It's a hundred pieces, and it's selling for just under three thousand dollars on the bracelet, two thousand nine hundred and ninety bucks. And yeah, I didn't I didn't get a s a chance last year to see, you know, like a a press version of the the three hundred LE they did
Jason Heaton . Yeah, they sent me one of those. I spent a couple of weeks with that. That was a sweet watch. And and you sent me a quick snap of of this one and and it's it's the same same coloring. It's the same it's it's it's really a nice, it's a striking kind of color combination that I wouldn't have thought that I would have liked, but I I really
James Stacey quite enjoy that. Yeah, I would say like in in the in the pantheon of the current color range. I like that one that they're doing stuff because this is it's different than white pearl, the blue has quite an impact and because the blue is also seen on the crown and on the bezel uh paint. It is it feels quite unified that way and and it's uh and both unified and different from a white pearl which is very monochromatic and feels almost black and white um in its in its execution. What I find interesting about this one is it's a 250 GMT, but the handset is from the vintage. Oh. So it's not the big skeletonized additional version of the minute hand that does the second time zone, it's a a long arrow hand, um, which I think is a little bit more effective, a little bit easier to read. Yeah. Maybe a little bit less exciting or quirky than the standard models, but on the vintage and on this one, you're getting this other handset, which I think is quite sharp. Um I did get to see just recently the the three hundred version. I actually saw one in New Hope, uh so last year's edition. Uh so I I I've now seen both. And you know I I have a 200T, so I haven't been able to talk my way into a 250T. They there's they feel too similar in many ways. And uh and I wear my uh 200T diving star all the time. And I would say within the range of all the colors that are on offer, I I think I really like the GMT in in something like the either the Shark Hunter, the Caribbean, or the Diving Star. But I think if you are especially if you're a Doxa collector, which really this is a hundred piece L E, this is for Doxafolk for sure. Uh I think the the the fact that not only does this not feel like kind of a last minute oh we can do a white dial like it's it's a little bit more dialed in it's also now has a continuation from the previous year's LE I'm impressed. It's cool. The the whole dial glows like a cool blue, uh, which is quite fun because it's uh the dial is entirely BGW9. So legibility is great day or night. And I even found that this there's enough loom on the dial that I didn't have to be charging it to see it. If I walked from outside inside, it was just there glowing, which is uh which quite a bit of fun. So so yeah, I'd say a a pretty solid limited edition as far as these things go. Uh it definitely offers something that the standard models don't, which is I think what you want from an L E and uh the pricing seems right in line with their current offerings. Yeah, it's uh it looks great and and
Jason Heaton you know, like you said, a hundred pieces is uh such a tiny L E and it's kind of refreshing to see a uh limited edition that that is truly that limited and then I guess for um people that didn't get in on the three hundred version um last year, uh here's your ch here's your chance to get a another Doxa Toppers Great White in slightly different form. And how about you? What have you got on for the uh for the the show today? Yeah, mine is not limited. Um mine is the uh it's my uh Tutor Pelagos FXD. Um back to this. I've been wearing it for about a week straight. Um I wore it for over Thanksgiving and um just got it on a dark blue uh crown and buckle uh Matte Supreme uh NATO strap and it it looks great and uh yeah, every time I put it on it's I rem I remember why, you know, it it it uh it's one of my top pieces and, you know, certainly it was my my pick at the you know, close to twelve months ago during our our draft or our tournament where we picked our one watch and uh still I'm still smitten with it. It's still a great great watch. So that's what I've got on today. It kinda feels like coming home after you know, weeks of blanc pans and and kind of other stuff and good to have this one back on the wr
James Stacey ist. Absolutely yeah that's a good one for sure and definitely one that uh I feel uh we've we've had plenty of coverage of on the show but I I I love that it's one that you haven't really tired of over over the time. So that's uh that's always a good sign. I feel very similarly about uh my thirty nine. Yeah. All right. So that's plenty of preamble. We've been over watches, including one a day early of its release. So uh you know, kudos to those who listen day one uh to our episodes, uh plenty of Thanksgiving chat, the end of the TGN pin. But if you saw the title for this episode, you'll know it's one of our most popular ones of the year, and that's the TGN holiday gift guide, this one for 2025. And this year we're going to be following largely a similar format to last year. We've we've adjusted the numbers a little bit to give us a little bit more headroom. Um, but I I think you'll find that it it doesn't really change necessarily how reasonable a lot of these picks are. So it'll be three stocking stuffers that each have to be under 50 bucks, uh, two proper gifts, each under $250, and then our traditional break the bank, spend anything based on a heavy recommendation from us, uh, sort of pick, and then uh, you know, depending on timing and that sort of thing, I've got a little list of some honorable mentions. Uh stuff I didn't want to suggest two years in a row or three years in a row or something like that. So uh we we can get to that towards the end. But uh Jason, do you want to kick it off with uh your first stocking stuffer for 2025?
Jason Heaton Sure, yeah. Um this one um I'm I'm surprised uh I haven't brought this one up before and I haven't looked back at a lot of the old episodes to see if you did either, but uh it's a personalized uh Victorinox Swiss Army knife. Um specifically uh well I mean there's any number of them that that fall in the in the in the price category that we're looking at and and kind of this theme. But the one I chose is just the the Spartan wood. You know, uh it's a bit of a different choice than your your typical uh Swiss Army knife, you know, with the the other the kind of the more traditional scales. Um this one has got wood and and then you can it's so it's four it might be cheating a little bit because the the base price is forty eight dollars um for the Spartan, which is kind of has your typical um you know, it's got like an awl and and a a corkscrew and a and a bottle opener and a screwdriver and and a and a blade um and a can opener as well. Um so it's kind of your your classic small Swiss Army. But then with the wooden scales and then you have the option of adding kind of a a personalized message for a few extra bucks. So it might kick you over at it it's forty eight dollars on its base and so m it might kick you over into the low fifties, uh or you could just order it unpersonalized if you're really hoping to keep it below fifty. But um I'm just a big fan of uh I think you are too. I think we've talked about it before is just uh Swiss Army knives for gifts. I think they're uh you can never have too many. I keep, you know, I've got one in in both Land Rovers, I've got, you know, another sitting by my car keys at home and one in my office and they're they're just so handy. So
James Stacey um it's a good stocking stuffer. I agree. I I literally just bought two the other days. Uh when I was in Geneva, I got one for each of my daughters with their name on it. Uh just the classic. Yeah. Uh, you know, as they're as they're quite young and don't have a huge amount of use for a knife. But then of course the last time, uh a couple trips ago, um and I can even include my my chat about this, uh because we did an episode in um I guess May of 24, May of 23. It was a while, it was a little while ago, anyways. Uh I actually got to go to the Victorinox factory and build my own. And so I have uh mine ready. It's but it's essentially always within reach. Yeah. Um I don't really travel unless I'm of course unless I'm flying without it. And it it is commonly in a pocket or a bag or a jacket pocket or something around me. So yeah, I highly recommend these. And the nice thing is is if you really want to be militant about the fifty dollar price point, there are so many options that start at like eighteen bucks. Like I think a classic is eighteen dollars. It's five or six bucks to get the name uh done it if you go to a uh uh if you go to a Victorinox store, there's a good chance they can do it right there. That's what they did for me in Geneva. Uh you you pick your one or two fonts and the name and then they do it and they they put the paint in it and they hand it to you. You you out in a few minutes. So uh a great gift, truly useful. And I think still one of those things that feels like the quality hasn't changed at all. Um, but the pricing feels very similar to when I was a kid. Like as a kid, we all had Swiss Army knives, then we had the Swiss cards. You remember those? Yeah. It's like a credit card that had all the it's just a great idea. Um, you know, we lived with these things growing up and it and it really feels like they still like something like a classic, you know, I've got a c a few of the hodinky ones we did several years ago. Uh the value just keeps getting better because it really doesn't feel like they're getting that much more expensive. And uh and yeah, I think it's just a a really solid, dependable product. And it's, I think it's also one of the only knives out there that isn't especially intimidating. So if you take this out of your pocket to try and help somebody and that person happens to, you know, open a box or whatever, whatever you're doing, open a piece of package, tri cut a uh zip tie or something and that person's really not a knife person. Uh I don't I think this is like among the only knives in existence that doesn't get like a well, why do you have a knife sort of response? So there you go. Said by a guy who currently has four, five, six, seven, at least eight knives around him. Um and and w one one that I just got and I'm very happy about, but I'll talk about on a uh on a future episode. So yeah, great stocking stuffer for that one. Um my first one is uh is actually a very straightforward recommendation. I think it's one of my favorite things to buy around the holidays. It definitely may have also been a stocking stuffer in the past. I didn't go back and double check this one because I really don't feel that bad doubling. up And it's just a bag of really good coffee. Good one. Um, like it pick something that you know, maybe something that's made in your city or in your country. It's just a great gift. Most people like coffee. Maybe you're in a scenario where' the person doesnt grind their own, and that means you can do it for them. Uh get the bag, grind it up, whatever you need to do, and uh and then and and then share that. And I have two recommendations. One I've definitely talked about on the show before, it's called big Ten. It's made by Turks West in Vancouver. It's in my top three favorite coffees in existence. It's very often number one. And uh Sarah and I have been buying, you know, several bags of this around the Christmas season for years. It's just one of our favorite things to do. It's not it used to be that it felt quite expensive and now you go to the the store and like kicking horse costs the same money at the grocery store because of what's happened with coffee. And uh and so yeah, I would go with a Big Ten from Turks West or the other one I got recently from Revolver Coffee. Shout out Terry if you're listening. Amazing. My favorite coffee shop in Vancouver is Revolver Coffee, just around the corner from Rolldorf. It's a great twofer. Uh and you can go any time of day. But Terry, who runs there, he was kind enough uh when I uh got my uh promotion to EIC, he sent me a gift card to get some coffee. Um he and I agree that coffee is about as good a gift as you can give somebody. And so Sarah and I picked a few and and the one that we've now bought like multiple large, like you know, the the two pound, two kilogram bags, the larger bags, is the uh Tom Bargain Always Sunny espresso bean and it's absolutely and like it's truly an amazing coffee. And that is actually made in Winnipeg, Manitoba. So another Canadian uh coffee bean. Obviously the beans aren't grown in Canada. Uh it is roasted and prepared by Tom Bargan in in uh Winnipeg. And uh I absolutely love this coffee. So I'll include links to both of those. Um, but you're well under $50. Uh you could probably even get, there's a chance you get a fairly large bag if you buy at the right time or whatever, uh, for f for under fifty bucks and the coffee is simply excellent. So that's my first tip. This is my favorite time of year to be drinking extra coffee. You know, maybe you're up in the morning with less to do and you can sit and really enjoy it and and yeah, a good cup of coffee is a an incredible gift.
Jason Heaton Yeah, good one. I like uh I like the idea of uh high quality consumable for uh for uh stocking stuff or for a gift anyway. It's just something to savor and then there's a whole ritual around coffee and it doesn't last forever so it feels kind of special, you know, as you kind of see the bag dwindling. It's uh I don't know, there's something I I kind of like about that. So good pick. All right. So your second stocking stuffer, what have you got for me? Yeah, my second one is uh it's actually a subscription. Um it's a subscription to Sidetracked magazine, which is a magazine we've talked about before. We've referenced their website um and and a lot of their great stories and you know they're they're one of the few subscriptions I have regularly that at Oceanographic and a couple of others, but um I'm never disappointed. They it's uh it's three issues per year and they offer a twenty twenty six gift subscription for forty nine dollars. So again, squeaking in just under our fifty dollar limit. You know, magazine subscriptions have become kind of a you know, print magazines have become kind of a premium product and bit of a luxury and and I'm all for it. I think it's a it's a great great way to spend money and especially if it's something that's really well done and good storytelling and great photography and sidetracked has all of that. So this is uh if you get this one as a as a gift subscription you get um it starts in the mid February, so the person will have to wait a little bit. Um, but you can certainly give them some kind of a little card or something indicating that this is what they're getting and uh so it's it'll be volumes thirty five, thirty six and thirty seven of sidetracked and I'm I'm just such a big fan of this magazine. And uh yeah, I just feel like that's a that's a kind of a gift that that gives, you know, three times uh next year, which is kind of nice. It'll always be a nice little rem
James Stacey inder of of the holiday. Yeah, no, I agree. Uh to the same extent that my my next stocking stuffer was a magazine subscription. Uh you can do things like road and trail like the from the the Hearst properties. You can pick something quite conventional and sometimes it's as little as like a dollar or or if you get road and track you can get car and driver for a dollar more. So you can look into those sorts of things depending on the taste of the person. And then uh sidetrack was on was on my list. I mean, uh that's that's silly. We did this blind. We didn't make that start up up at the start or we didn't make that clear at the start. We do this blind. I I haven't seen Jason's until he puts it into the uh until he mentions it and then drops it into our show notes. But uh the other one I have is uh a little bit more, but the coffee was under fifty, so we'll we'll go split we'll go split on it and uh that's the adventure journal which is sixty dollars a year um and and an absolutely incredible publication. So if you really wanna uh push push the ceiling uh on that, that's a good option. Um, but I would say uh I would go anywhere from get them a year of like a good online subscription, maybe a a Wall Street Journal could be had for a year or the first six months for not too much money, uh, or the New York Times or something like that. I I'm a big Apple News fan, which is like probably a hundred and fifty bucks a year. But you could do, you know, a few months of that to give someone a chance to give it a try and then they get to read a lot of great stuff um from a number of different publications. But if you want to put something in their hand uh, I really like you know the options that that come from uh like I said, the in the automotive world, there's lots of options um that that would be under uh fifty bucks for the year. And then if you if you want to spend another ten dollars, I think at adventure journ.al is an absolute win Yeah. Good one. Uh so far.
Jason Heaton All right. Stocking stuffer three. Yeah. Um, I believe this is one I've probably done in the past, but I'm gonna make this kind of a perennial choice for stocking stuffers because I'm just a big fan. And this is a pair of uh darn tough uh hiking socks. Um I I just feel like socks are uh the greatest gift and I I think you know it it feels cliche um very cliche to to get socks for Christmas, but uh there's a reason for that. And I just I think so good though. They feel good. Like uh you put on a new pair of socks and I I you I never I'm always surprised by how good it feels to like pull on a new pair of socks. Like they just have a little extra cush to them, and you know, uh I mean, there's any number of brands. I'm a big fan of uh smartwold as well, but Darntuff is uh is one of my favorites, and they've actually got a lifetime warranty, which is pretty wild for for socks. Um and you know, there are any number of types that they have, but I I just put in here the the hiker boot uh full cushion midweight. So pretty, pretty versatile. You can wear it with your bluntstones, your hiking boots. Uh you know, I I we I wear mine uh running occasionally this time of year when it's colder and works for all of it. So um yeah, darn tough. They're made in Vermont and a lifetime warranty for thirty dollars. So there you go
James Stacey . Yeah, that's great. I we were sitting on the couch last night, Sarah and I, after the kids had gone to bed, and I was walking her through my picks and she goes, What about darn tough? So we're on the same wavelength. Sarah loves a uh you know, we're both definitely like yeah, uh a pair of socks, especially ones that you know will last like forever. Yeah. Darntough will back up their socks, um, and and they make a great product and there's lots of good great patterns and that kind of stuff if that's what you're into. But yeah, a fantastic pick for sure. All right. Um, so for my third, it's uh something I bought during the summer. I believe I've mentioned it on the show. And I just I'm I'm it's one of those things kind of like a Swiss Army knife, actually, in in many ways similar to a Swiss Army knife. I'm just blown away by the amount of value for what they're offering. Um you know, I don't get me wrong, we've talked a little bit about knives on this show already. I like an expensive, cool knife that you carry around, but sometimes I want a knife that I can smack with the back of my like a smack the back of it with my hammer. Oh yeah. Or twist something out of the ground with it, right? And I I can't tell you how much I enjoyed any time I needed to use it, the Moraniv Companion, which is a $20 um Swedish knife. You can buy them on Amazon all day long. They are easy to find. And my only suggestion would be: you know, you can buy the the C, which is carbon steel. You can buy the S, which has stainless steel from Sweden. And then if you they're about $20 for those, maybe $22 is what I'm seeing. I'm seeing them on Amazon, the standard uh S for $20. And then the one that I think is quite interesting that I didn't notice or didn't exist when I did this is called the companion spark. It's forty-five dollars and it's the same knife. Um, but you get uh not only the sweeter steel, but you get a feral rod uh that pushes into the handle. Uh so if you want to throw some sparks, uh start a fire, that sort of thing. I absolutely love this product. You can clip it on a belt if you want to walk around with it. I leave it in my toolbox. It's that much of a a tool. It's super sharp out of the box. It has a great little plastic, very simple thing. If if you were to be using it and needing it and it broke, I don't think you would feel bad at $20. And I've only had to touch up the blade after a summer of of some pretty tough use.m Uh so I' I'm impressed all around. Get one in bright orange. Like I bought a black one because that's what Amazon had. Get a cool color and and have it in your toolbox or keep it under the seat in the car or something like that. Just a useful handy thing from slicing an apple to like you like more much more hardcore sort of pry bar work and that sort of thing, which I'm sure that they don't necessarily support on their uh on their uh on their website
Jason Heaton . Yeah, I think we're I feel like we're sort of circling uh some similar themes here, and which isn't surprising, I guess, given that we've been doing this for eight years and we kind of have similar tastes. But uh yeah, so far some some good picks and we'
James Stacey re we're done with uh stocking stuffers, I guess. We are. We are for sure. Uh so why don't you give us our first uh we'll call it a big gift. Yeah. This is up to up to two hundred fifty dollars, which is a a pile of money for sure. Yeah. Um, but what uh what would you recommend uh people consider for their two hundred fifty or less.
Jason Heaton All right. Well, this is something uh you have some experience with um because it's what I got you for Christmas. Oh yeah, nice. This is uh it's the North Face uh X Bialeti Mocha set. This is um I'm a big fan of of Bialetti's mocha um stovetop espresso pot that um I've had one for a while and they're they're really versatile. They're great. You can take 'em camping and use 'em on a little camp stove. You can use 'em on a open flame, you know, on a uh gas range. You can use them on a apparently you can use them on induction style ranges as long as you have a special plate that Bialetti sells, but I I don't have one of those. Interesting. Um or, you know, standard glass uh ceramic cooktops, etc. In any case, um this is a style of coffee maker and I this this dovetails nicely with your coffee gift. Um and that is y y you know y you fill the bottom chamber with water and then you put the filter in and add coffee, ground coffee to the top of that, and then you screw on the pot which is on the top. And it's sort of what happens is when you put it on the flame, the the water bubbles up um kind of percolator style through the coffee into the upper chamber and then you pour it out when it's done and it takes all of you know less than 10 minutes to get a little pot of coffee. And this one is good for three cups. And the set uh the the the north face aspect of this is um it it it's kind of co-branded with the North Face. So it's a it's a black and yellow colorway with the North Face logo comes in a kind of a a tin, you know, little metal box, aluminum box, with two cups, two two metal cups, um, some little kind of fun little spoons, and then they actually give you a little bag of uh bioletti coffee as well. So you're kind of off and running uh if you want to make your first pot with it. But uh yeah I just I I'd seen this pop up. You know, it's probably served me through an algorithm knowing that I like coffee and I like outdoor stuff. And um I feel like you know a standard Bioletti mocha set would certainly be uh more affordable um and y more readily available, but um you know, given that it's the holidays, it's kind of fun to have a little something special, a little something co branded with some color to it. And I think the North Face one would be fun to take
James Stacey camping. It'd just be a neat kind of set. Yeah, yeah. My I was I was sitting at uh Sarah's uh family home and uh in that arrived by FedEx and I I couldn't tell what it was and I opened it up and I saw the two brands. I was like, Did they make a North Face mocha pot? And then you open it up and it's all black and yellow. Uh it's very cool. Uh so a huge thank you to you for uh for that one. And uh and yeah, I definitely look forward to using it and and definitely I think uh a great use will be the cottage where we more commonly are using uh like a gas burner. Uh whether it's uh you know something little like a Optimus Crux or or a larger, you know, kind of like Coleman stove or something like that. But uh a really good thing and uh they are uh quite useful in the quite simple in making a very high quality cup of coffee uh that isn't that much work uh aside from if you have to make consecutive cups because of the the temperature range of the pot. So uh but you can get quite big ones if you don't need a uh north face one.
Jason Heaton Yeah that's true. Um and this one, you know, it it is a it is a premium price. This is two hundred and twenty dollars. So like I said, if you if you just want to get somebody a Bioletti mocha set, you can get 'em all day long for you know, probably probably a stocking stuffer range price, uh if you if you look hard enough. So for sure. Anyway, that's my first uh I guess mid mid range gift or
James Stacey standard more expensive gift. So my first one, uh I'll actually spoil your gift, which is in the mail, or one of sorry, just one of your gifts which is in the mail. Just keeping in the theme of this episode and uh trying to keep up with you. Uh I already have my gift in hand. It's actually just sitting a few m a few feet away from me here. Uh but yours is in the mail, should be there in a couple of days. And one of the things I got you, it's the theme of your gift is sort of uh taking your car camping a little bit further uh because I know you had a couple of good outings this year. Yeah. So this is the Gold Zero Lighthouse 600 lantern and USB power hub. Oh and it's a a very traditional sort of of a very straightforward sort of lantern design with two fold-down legs, but then the legs can also hook over a um c like a rope or a tree branch so it can hang upside down and then it has a hand crank that not only charges the lamp, but can charge your phone. That's good. Wow, look at that. Oh my god. So I saw this a little while ago. Um I'm not sure if it came out this year or the year before or or if it's been around longer. I found it probably about six months ago and I was like, I absolutely need one of these. And then I just didn't have the call to go camping. But it had like sat in my you know possibility for a final note sort of scenario. And then when when I was trying to when I came up with sort of the theme for your gift, uh or the gifts that that will be coming for you, I was like, Oh, this is gonna be great. Um I I love the idea of it being able to be hand crankable if you didn't charge it up and then it you know has a built-in USB cable and I love that you can hang it up upside down and it has uh single-sided lighting or 360-degree lighting. Uh so you can be quite, you know, if you're putting it on the side of a tent or on the side of you the inside of your Land Rover, then you don't have to be wasting, you know, 180 degrees of the of the lighting. Uh it it it's quite clever and uh very cool, comes very highly recommended and kind of looks like a proper piece of camping gear at the same time. Doesn't look like you brought a a a light from a studio or or whatever on your camping tri
Jason Heaton p. So yeah. This is great. I mean one I'm reading the the specs here. One minute of crank time equals about ten minutes of light on Loa. That's that's impressive. Not bad. I love the option that you can hand crank it to to get some juice. And the runtime's impressive. I mean, even if you do both sides of it uh uh on low power, you get 180 hours of light. That's that's really impressive.
James Stacey So yeah, and that sells for uh that's for road eighty dollars, so well under the two fifty uh on that one. And uh and I won't spoil the rest of what's coming, uh hopefully in one shipment, but we'll see. Some cool stuff to uh to take your your car camping up up a level hopefully. All right, so what have you got for the second of the larger gifts
Jason Heaton ? Yeah, so this one's kind of fun. And it's actually something I bought um on my Channel Islands trip, um, of all things. Um and it's from a company called GalleyWare. Um is in Galley and on a boat, and it is their ocean winch salt and pepper mills. Now this this was a bit of an out of left field gift, but um I saw these, you know, we had been motoring, we'd left Catalina Island and we were we had to refuel the boat. And so we went around the island to the small harbor on the other side of Catalina. And it was pretty deserted, but there was one little general store um just up the dock. We wanted to stretch our legs and a few of us went up to the general store. And they had a few souvenirs there, and then they had a few crafty kind of things, and they had this set of salt and pepper mills that looked like the winch the hand cranked winch on a sailboat you know where you'd you'd have the sheets the the ropes and they're they're they come on a teak uh base. Um you could put 'em like in the middle of your table. Um and they're color coded black for pepper and kind of s uh just straight metal steel for uh for salt. And you know, I I love anything kind of nautical anyway. They they have a really heavy, well made, well crafted tactile feel. Um th there's some like knurling on the base, they're quite heavy. Um it's all metal construction with with you know ceramic uh uh grinding mechanism inside and I don't know like I like I like salt and pepper mills anyway, like in general. Sure. Um and I just think you, know to, to kind of have this sort of thing, it it felt like the same level. And I I think in any other to any other audience I would feel a little strange. I I know I'd get strange looks about this, but I feel like those people that are listening, the great majority of people listening, could appreciate this for its quality of craftsmanship and how it's how it's made. It just has that kind of heavy mechanical old school feel to it that that I really like. And it's again, you know, Christmas gifts are a great excuse to get something for somebody that they probably wouldn't buy themselves. And yet what I like about these and and I guess as I look at the rest of my list, I really wanted to focus on things that that are lasting and not disposable and not um kind of throw away stuff and and uh these are definitely in that category that these these would kind of sit on a table for generations. I think they're they're really well made. That's great, man. Anyway. Good pick. Yeah. All right. And that's for both. Yeah, for both. I mean the whole set with the teak base. Yeah. B buy
James Stacey once, cry once for salt and pepper. There you go. Good stuff. Uh yeah. So my uh so for my second and final of the uh two hundred and fifty dollar category, uh not a big surprise if you've been listening to the last couple of months of the show, it's a pro 3D printer. Uh this time of year, the Bamboo Labs uh A1, which is one that I have, uh just the standard A1 with a single set for, you know, you can print in one color at a time. Um, can be had for uh well under $200 fifty dollars. I mean, even if you just go on exchange in Canada, what I can see on on their website, it's about two hundred and twenty bucks. So you'd still have a little bit of money left over for a a a you know, a spool of filament and uh and you can get right underway. I I think it's one of the cooler things I've done this year that wasn't an experience. Um as far as things I bought, my my daughters really love it. We found some very practical and some just kind of fun uh uses for it. And every time I take like a further step into the world of 3D printing, it becomes more and more useful. So yeah, I think for the money, if it's something that you're interested in or that would kind of suit the personality of the person you're buying for, I have trouble believing they'd feel really let down by it just because you get that mix of usefulness and kind of an entertainment value and that ecosystem where you're printing not only can, you know, I've already bought the AMS system that allows you to have four reels kind of spooled up for multicolored prints and that sort of thing. So you can expand from there. But I think this is a nice entry point that really doesn't cost when you when you factor for everything. I think one of the most surprising elements of the whole experience is what you're getting for two hundred bucks is kind of or two or three hundred dollars is kind of surprising to me. Um it it feels like it should cost more. I think you said the same when you saw it printing away in my basement and we're printing like glow in the dark carabiners and stuff like that. So yeah, I I it's not for everybody, obviously, but if you if you've got somebody that's a little bit on the nerdy side that would probably like um to be able to to learn how to do some of this, and then you can certainly get into the the 3D modeling side of it as well and make your own things. I I think it's worth the money and uh I've really enjoyed it. So uh if if if I hadn't bought one and it was suggested to me now knowing what I know, I wouldn't h hesitate to spend, you know, two hundred and fifty bucks on it..
Jason Heaton Ye Yeah.ah It's it's super cool. And I think it it it's one of those products or items that um you know, as we've talked about in the past, it feels like like when drones first came out or, you know, like th this sort of trickle down technology that is suddenly very accessible and you realize how accessible it is and then how relatively easy it is to use and yet the possibilities are endless for just constant entertainment across generations. Like, you know, you I it feels like the kind of gift that you know, if it had been in my household when I was a kid, I would would have just been absolutely enthralled by this sort of thing. Yeah. I'm sure your kids are. And it's just it it kind of just straddles that all the age ranges and and and as well as it's useful. So it's uh yeah, that's a really good good good pick. Yeah
James Stacey , for sure. Uh so yeah, that that rounds us out for the under 250 and under 50 dollar categories, leaving us with only one. The no holds barred. Break the bank. What did uh what did you pick if budget's not a concern? I really broke the bank. I wonder which one of us spent
Jason Heaton more? Because mine could be a lot. This is something my my finger hovered over this one when it first came out, and I just couldn't I couldn't bite the bullet. Oh man, I'm excited. This is the Maison Else Perse Fantôme limited edition for Hodinky uh this clock just okay let's get the price out of the way this is a shade under ten thousand dollars nine thousand nine990. Um it's available through Watches of Switzerland. This is not an ad. Um it's just it's something I was absolutely smitten with when it came out. It it's it's this mix of it's it's a beautiful sort of deconstructed, open-worked, heavy desktop clock that you know I'm sure you know those that are following the show and and you know visit Hodinki regularly know about this. But what the wild thing about it is that you build it yourself. It comes in a beautifully done kit. There's a online community where if you know you need help while you're building it, you can access that. There's videos that go along with it that that will kind of walk you through it. Um and then you know you even hand apply the the loom on the hands. It's just um it's just such a such an item, such a a beautifully produced product, if you can even call it just a product. It's it's just something that would I I just love the idea that it'll last forever. You have your hands, you know you you have your time and your hands invested in the actual build of it and uh and it's functional and just a gorgeous object. So um this would be someone for you know for someone very special in your life. Um or you know, go ahead and gift yourself if if that's how you roll. But uh I just I love this thing
James Stacey . Yeah, no, I agree. And I I think before I get into my feedback on this pick, because I I like I said, didn't know this was coming, but some disclosure is worth mentioning. I work for Hodinki. Hodinki is owned by Watches Switzerland. My wife works on the team that helped create this clock with Maison Al Say. I I promise I didn't know. it was coming I didn't pick it for my list because I didn't want to feel uh overbearing about an LE. And the last thing I would say is currently it's showing is available on Watch the Switzerland's website. I don't know if that's accurate. Oh, okay. I was wondering about that. I was was thrilled when it. There were very few of these made and they sold quite quickly, so it's possible that a store has one. And otherwise I'll just give you my feedback. It's ten thousand dollars, so it's more than I've ever spent on anything in the watch world. And I I think it's just exceptionally cool. Uh, it was a project that the first few times I heard about it coming up, I thought, a clock, really? For that much money? And then you see the execution, this beautiful wood box.y E pieverce has a little foam tray that it sits in. The whole experience of being able to work with uh, you know, the two founders, the the husband and wife founders of uh of Maison L Say to build the clock, I think is quite cool. And I think that's why people kind of attach to it. And the final product, I think would not only be something I would happily have on my shelf, uh, but then the added feeling of like, yeah, you know, someone mentions it and you go, I, you know, I built that, I painted the loom on those hands or whatever, right? Like I think like that's that's nerdy in in a very specific and special sort of way. And uh and yeah, look, I is it expensive? Absolutely. Is it exceptionally cool? I I think so as well, but I have outlined my biases uh which I'm comfortable with. Uh it's not an ad. We don't get paid for ads. The show's listener supported. And so that's how that works. And uh and yeah, so uh a very cool pick and definitely breaks the bank. I don't think I mean depending on how you want to do the math, mine's not gonna hit 10 grand. So in the past, we've picked expensive products and that sort of thing. This year I really wanted to stick to watches and I wanted it to not be a product. I did some research, I did some digging around. In the past, we've recommended, you know, uh HSNY has these watchmaking courses, um, you know, 101 through 104. And I think these are great. The styart at 7$22 if you wanted to do 101 to 103. So that's movement mechanics is 101, then gear train is 102, and then winding and setting works is 103. You could add another um three hundred and seventy five dollars. So you're up over about a thousand dollars now just at a or right at a thousand dollars for one oh four, which is the escapement class. So if you just wanted to do it yourself and you're able to get yourself to I mean they have a big list. It's LA, it's Atlanta, it's DC, it's New York, it's Toronto. They're around, uh North America wise, uh about a thousand dollars. So that's enough right now to to clear, but we're not even close to done yet. If you really want to break the bank, I spoke with uh Nick who works for the HSNY and is a good colleague uh of ours at Hodinki. You can go full private classes and this would be for eight people to be able to do 101 to 103 in New York. Um, there are certain limitations, like it can't be on a Tuesday night, like you'd have to check with them, but you could make this happen, I believe, on a weekend. So you could take you and seven of your buddies or your family or uh the a collection therein of both, a mix of both, uh, for five thousand dollars for eight people to do one oh one to one oh three and you could do it all together and have an amazing weekend in New York, that sort of thing. I think that'd be really cool. And then if you wanted to just do any one of the levels, like if a few of you, if you had a bunch of friends that had done 101 or 102 kind of disparately, and you wanted everybody to do 104, say that's two thousand dollars for eight people so let's say you did want to do this uh you know the first thing that what that came to my mind was like hey if I was doing a bachelor party this is more my speed than Vegas.ah Ye. know You what I mean? Yeah, it's a great idea. So you're five grand in for eight people, factor in hotels. I would say don't go this time of year in New York, goodness sakes, uh, for hotel prices. It'll make the the class feel free uh at that point. Um, but you know, pick pick a time of year that's a little bit more casual in terms of hotels in New York. And you could all you could all go in and but you know, five grand plus hotels plus some food, even if you were only covering the class, your hotels and some food, you're you're talking a lot of money. But I think this is a really cool gift. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. And for the right group of guys, for the right uh, you know, maybe you're near one of the cities where you could do this and you have a little watch group and you're able to build the cost together and split it. I think this could be an incredible way to um to to do something that is expensive but is deeply watch focused and doesn't mean that you'll build you'll have a just another watch. Uh I I think this is a way to go deeper into the hobby and and learn something more. And I'm very much considering if I can make the timing work to do some of the Toronto classes they have uh coming up. And uh and yeah, so that that's my pitch is you could start as if it was just you you and wanted to kind of do one oh one to one oh four in one of the offered cities, it'd be about a thousand dollars plus your travel, hotels, the rest of it. And if you want to do a big group, you could, you know, you're up to about five grand for the classes, which is I think just such a cool idea to do it privately. Ye
Jason Heaton ah. Yeah, that's great. I mean again, I I just l I look at our list and I hear you telling this and I'm like, you know, I I chose a a very expensive clock that you build yourself and you chose a you know, fairly expensive uh experience uh building a watch. It's it's it's uh funny how we're kinda circling the same sort of stuff, uh short of the my strange salt and pepper mill selection. Um three D printer. We've got coffee and yeah, right. Three D printer. Uhhuh.-. Yeah There's a theme somewhere in all this. But uh yeah, good good picks. Um quickly before we jump into final notes, do you have any uh sort of honorable mentions or outliers that didn't make the list that you want to mention
James Stacey ? Yeah, the first would be um if you're looking for a really quick socking stuffer for somebody who likes adventure writing, um I was just on Amazon and confirmed that it does exist in paperback, Kiss or Kill, Confessions of a Serial Climber from Mark Twight, one of the better books I read this year that was nonfiction. Um, really, really liked it. Uh the next one, these are a few things that I mentioned in final notes that I've enjoyed enough that they were in contention for stocking stuffers or thereabouts. So the Magpul DACA pouch, if you travel in like a really high-end pouch to carry something in this is what I carry like passports, visas, that sort of stuff that really stuff I I'm I care about. Great option. They come in a few different sizes. That travel router I mentioned, the the GLINET barrel, uh has been awesome on every trip I take it on. Uh genuinely useful. Multiple connections on the flight. It's great. That's a hundred bucks or thereabouts. I'll include a link to a few options. Um oh phone screen protectors. There's a great gift. Um I've I went back and checked. I've used s six protectors this year uh that I've damaged or scratched or or dented and my phone has been fine. My total cost is about a hundred bucks and I guarantee that the screen and and and that on on my iPhone would have been significantly more than that if I had actually broken it. And and I would have had the pain of having to go to the Apple store, the lost time with the phone, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Uh so I'm a big fan. Uh these days I'm using the Spiegan model. Uh, I can include it in the show notes. It's very easy to install. Uh, it's it's the one that I've had the least amount of like bubbles and dust or anything like that. If you follow the directions, it's nice and easy. And then the last one, perhaps the most obvious, maybe one of my favorite things I got this year. Uh, but it was on the the the the more simple version was on the stocking stuffers last year, and that's the uh O Light O Clip Ultra, uh the flashlight. I just love it. I carry it all the time. Uh just what a great product. So yeah, those are my honorable mentions, my my final bits. How about you? Ye
Jason Heaton ah, good pick. Um yeah, I had a I had two that they aren't stocking stuffers, they're kind of more in the the mid range. Um one is is a really goofy. thing It is uh it's through the the official double seven store, the James Bond store um online. It's a Thunderball sea globe. So picture a snow globe, but it's uh it's sort of an undersea kind of picture kind of silty dive. Um you shake it and it's it's got uh a a scene of of James Bond from Thunderball in his orange wetsuit and uh short shorts uh with a knife strapped to his uh calf and that big Oh man, look at this sort of uh tank slash uh you know it's i it's pretty wild. Oh I this I should have bought you this. This is great. This is goofy, but it's uh I think it'd just be so fun. I mean, snow globes are fun, but to have a James Bond sea globe, uh, this is a hundred and thirty-four dollars. So um that was one of them. And then the other is there's this uh Japanese company called Kinto. They do a lot with kind of kitchenware um things, you know, some ceramics and aprons and and they they kind of go heavy into the kind of coffee prep thing. And this is the SCS-S zero two brewer stand set for four cups of coffee. Comes with a glass carafe, um, a metal uh cone filter and this beautiful wood and brass stand that's adjustable up and down with just a ring that you position over the glass carafe and then you can make uh up to four cups of coffee in this and it's uh they just do a beautiful job. I've got one of their um kind of pour-over style things that that's uh beautiful ceramic with a reusable metal um mesh uh filter and it came with a cup. I think it was actually a a gift from a watch brand many years ago for Christmas that came and I use it a lot. Um so I was I I just love looking at Kinto's site and they've got some some really neat, beautifully designed uh Japanese products here. And uh and yeah, this coffee stand set is uh hundred and ninety six bucks, so not cheap again, but um you know something you'll have for a long time and it looks beautiful.
James Stacey So Well look that's uh that's a lot of picks, whether you go with uh one of the the main options or something that we suggested uh, you know, in the in sort of the the final, you know, honorable mentions there at the end. Uh but yeah, another another good uh gift guide in the bag. I I think this is uh kind of delightful. I'm very excited to make uh uh you know, the inaugural cup of coffee on the uh the the uh coffee pot from uh North Face and Balletti. Uh yeah, so that's great. Uh uh solid stuff for sure. And uh this is another one I think I would love to see people go nuts on the Slack as as I think we have in in previous years, uh, filling in some of these things. I'm sure there's some great gifts, even stuff that we've mentioned that we just simply didn't remember. Uh I will also go back and you don't put in the show notes the last few years at least. Most of those links should still be largely accurate in terms of pricing and and link route and that sort of thing. So lots of options there. And you've still got about 20 days from the day this comes out uh to uh to dig into uh the finals of your your Christmas shopping or holiday shopping if you're doing any of that. So um looking forward to seeing what uh what other people suggest on the slack for sure. Yeah, good stuff.. All right Let's uh move into some final notes. What do you have? Uh yeah, mine's actually a fun video from uh one of my favorite automotive YouTube channels. So again, uh I've I've suggested many videos in the past from Speed and they've even launched a couple videos in the last couple of weeks, I really recommend. So be sure to check out uh that channel Speed with Three E's. But this is uh I I liked the vehicle in this one and I liked how they kind of went about it in fixing a vehicle from the position of someone who really doesn't know that much about fixing cars. So this is from big time. So two of the other guys that left Donut uh back in the day, this is the channel they started, and that's uh Job and Jerry. And uh it's it's just a fun video of them fixing one of their colleague, their other, you know, one of their colleagues at big time had a non-running uh Mitsubishi Pizero, uh, or I mean a a version therein of a small Mitsubishi uh SUV and they go through the process of getting it to start and kind of walk you through some of it. And uh I just enjoyed it. I sat down and I don't always make it through all of these sort of uh build style videos, but uh I like this one quite a bit. It was uh easy, easy watching, and I think these guys are doing a good idea. They just moved to a new space and I'm excited to see them kind of grow the content uh beyond their you know previous garage uh which is where they were doing a lot of this.
Jason Heaton Yeah, nice. Yeah I'm I'm I'm excited to try this. I like the Pajero anyway. Um it's just uh it's a it's a great vehicle and then I don't know, I d I like the idea of and for obvious reasons, resurrecting old old vehicles that are not running and just seeing how people do it. Especially kind of non-profionessals.
James Stacey Yeah, I mean the the the two main guys on the show like are are very capable. The two good main guys who like I said, Job and Jerry are are very capable in their uh automotive building and that sort of thing, but they allow the sort of they make a hit list and they kind of move through it together and it's about getting this thing back on the road. So I think this is probably episode one and and they said they did it for less than five hundred bucks. So that's great. And how about you? What have you got to uh close out the show?
Jason Heaton Yeah. So I'm I've got um a substack recommendation. This is from uh a a TGN alum, um all around interesting interesting man, David Concannen. He was on a couple of years ago um with some good stories to tell and he started uh a sub stack recently and I I've subscribed and I'm I'm just gonna throw in a a link to a a recent one that I liked. It's called The Importance of Being Second and there's a a bit of a watch connection to it. It's uh the subtitle is How a Gold Rolex President Reminds Me of the Folly of the First. And it's kind of all about this idea that it isn't always as important to be the first person to do something as it is to maybe do something following and do it in a more unique way um or a quieter way can be just as uh just as gratifying and and important. And um, you know, David's got a lot of stories to tell and I look forward to seeing where this substack spins out and uh um you know what else he has to offer here. So um give it a go. Yeah, we'll we'll throw a link in the show notes, David Concanon's Substack. So best of luck with that, David, and uh yeah, we'll have to have him back on TGN someda
James Stacey y. I would love to. I mean he wrote a great story for the most recent issue of Hoodinky magazine, uh which I I won't spoil in any way. I'd I'd love to make it a digital version at some point in the future. Uh but I I'm a huge fan of David, uh a lovely and very talented guy with a lot of great stories to tell. So this would be a a very fast uh subscribe uh uh as far as uh sub stacks go. This is great. So uh good work on that one, David and uh good good pick for sure. And a nice way to round out the show as well. All right, there's the gift guide. Thank you so much for listening. If you'd like to subscribe to the show notes, get into the comments for each episode, consider support or even consider supporting the show directly, you could get yourself a TGN Sign NATO or even just access to the Great Slack, please visit thegreatNATO.com. Music Throughout is Siesta by Jazzar via the Free Music Archive. And
Jason Heaton we leave you with this quote from Pablo Picasso who said, the meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.