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The Grey NATO – 391 – Loose Ends

Published on Thu, 17 Sep 2026 06:00:00 -0400

Synopsis

In this episode of The Graynato (TGN), hosts James Stacy and Jason Heaton try a new format called "Loose Ends" - covering various topics they've been into lately that don't warrant full episodes. James is recording from Milan, Italy, where he's attending a Rolex product launch (pre-announcement). The hosts promote their upcoming Toronto Time Peace Show appearances on September 26th, including a live TGN episode, gear swap with RZE watches, and evening party with Marathon.

The conversation meanders through diverse topics: James discovers coconut water americanos and discusses his coffee setup improvements with a Niche Zero grinder; Jason shares his newfound love of strength training classes at age 56 and his DIY projects including Land Rover gearbox repairs and refurbishing an old caboose stove. James recounts nearly purchasing a vintage 1950s Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Veloce from Cole Pennington, but ultimately deciding against it due to prohibitive import costs and storage challenges. They also discuss building mechanical keyboards (James received a kit from Andrew Green), watching classic films with their daughters (The Matrix, Shaun of the Dead), and Jason's enjoyment of Anthony Horowitz's detective novels. The episode showcases their genuine friendship and varied interests beyond just watches and gear.

Show Notes

Transcript

Speaker
James Stacy Hello and welcome to another episode of the Great NATO. It's a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 391, 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 the gray NATO.com for more details. My name is James Stacy, and I'm joined as ever by my friend and co-host Jason Heaton. Jason, how are we doing?
Jason Heaton I'm doing pretty well. It's um feeling very autumnal here the past couple of days and I'm not complaining. It's uh downright chilly and yeah, busted out a a sweater yesterday for the first time since May. Yeah, it's uh it's feeling good. how are things in Italy? You're in Milan. What's the weather like there?
James Stacy Um it's probably in the 90s. Uh I think I I'm you know, I'm you know it's it was at 27 Celsius, I think, when I got off the plane, and then it's definitely warmer than that here in the center of the city. Uh yeah, no, it's definitely we're we're getting late summer. We're getting late summer back home as well. Uh so I know I know lots of people in my life are ready for the fall. I for one, no, I'm okay.
Jason Heaton We've got we have so much to look forward to in
James Stacy September to talk about. Yeah. Uh so we'll get to that in just a moment. I've already, you know, we already dropped that I'm in Italy, so if my audio sounds a little weird, I'm recording for my hotel room. I have flown out to uh to Italy to see whatever Rolex is going to announce. And of course, by the time any of you listen to this, this product will be have been live for two days. But we recorded it, you know, the evening before the launch. I don't know what the watch is. Uh my feeling is it's probably not. I mean, this is here's me doing my best prediction. I've come to Milan instead of Geneva. Uh I assume it's not like uh the next generation of the Explorer two. Mm-hmm. I I assume it's something else. Um but we'll see. uh it's that's still lots of reason in our line of work. It's certainly in my line of work, lots to be excited about. A new Rolex launch will uh you know bring a lot of people to the site and and open up a lot of new conversations and that sort of stuff so looking forward to seeing what that is, but I can't weigh in. Usually you would have uh you know an embargo, an NDA, any any sort of that I don't I haven't even seen any leaks online yet for what this might be. So I don't know. We'll see. Hopefully it's fun. Um hopefully I get to see a few buddies. I don't know who else is on this trip. Uh so far. I've been in I've been in Milan for a few hours. I walked around uh a little bit. I had a couple of coffees. I had a uh Negroni and now I'm back at the back at the hotel to record an episode, which is uh just fine by me. Uh speaking of great times in great cities, don't forget we have the Toronto Time Peace Show coming up September twenty sixth and twenty seventh. And most of our all of our programming for the T GN world is on the twenty sixth. That's the Saturday. The show has like a VIP media night, Friday night, and then Saturday we kick off at noon. There will be a live TGN from noon to one thirty. Uh please come out, check it out, hang out, we'll have a great time. Uh it was a really fun uh blast last year. We're hoping to do a very similar sort of format this year, but it all depends on who we see that's in town. That can be on for five, ten minutes of chit-chat. We do a potluck episode. And then uh moving on from that, from two to four, we will have a gear swap with RZE watches. So all of the details for that is in the link in the show notes if you would like to RSVP to show up. It is at a um it's at the Twilight Cafe, just about five minutes walk from where the show is. You can stop in. You don't have to be there for two hours, just have to take two hours. It's going to be a really fun hangout. Um, in the RSVP link that uh Huey and the team from RZE provided, there is sort of an explainer as to the types of gear and the sort of rules that we like to follow so that these events go well. Uh Huey and his team have done these before. This is a first for TGN. I think it's gonna be a blast. I've already started like putting things in a corner chair in my office of like, oh that could go to the swap. That could go to the swap. and just like dreaming of not having any of this stuff somewhere in a closet in my house. Um, but at the same time having it go to a home that that somewhere somebody might like it. So I'll be out to make deals, looking forward to that. And then of course kind of our our banner social event of the year, I'd say. I'd I if you've got a contender, Jason, let me know. The Vancouver party is great, but the Toronto party that we do with Marathon really is just one of the best events that we throw during the year. That RSVP is out, it's filling up nice and quickly. Everything's looking perfect as far as those numbers. So if you're going to be in town and you'd like to come hang out with us, uh drink some great beer, there'll be some fantastic wine. There'll be some ludicrous food, including some of the best donuts you've ever eaten. It's a really, really fun party. It's very mellow. There's no powerpoints. There's no people talking about, you know, brand projections or or you know, marketing talking points or or you know, podcast talking points or any of that. It's a hangout. It's a pure super casual, really fun hangout. We've this will be our third year that we've done it with uh Marathon and we're very much looking forward to that. So it's the three phase of the Saturday. Uh you have the live episode at noon. You have the gear swap starting at two, and then you have the marathon party, which starts at 7 p.m. Please RSVP for either of the uh actual events, the uh the gear swap or the party. Looking forward to seeing you all there. And then finally, just a heads up that we still have uh availability of the TGN 10 Dazzle Camo Strap Habit Collab NATO. Uh, this is a very fun project that we did with Nick from Strap Habit. We took this pattern, um, this sort of NATO pattern that Staycom Industries created for us that we put on the boxes of the CWN one, and then we shifted it around a little bit with a little sort of Easter egg on the inside of the strap about the 10th anniversary of the show. You can pick up these straps for $35 from Strap Habit. If you're keen on one of those, I don't believe we'll do another restock. Uh, you know, at a certain point, it won't be the 10th anniversary anymore. Um, but it has been a really successful, really fun project with uh with Nick and with Staycom Industries. Shout out Evan for that. And check it out if you're keen. They're still available on the shop. So check that one out. Link again is in the bio. Jason, I think that's all the housekeeping, right? We can probably get into I don't know, some risk check. It's a weird episode. I'll explain the I'll explain the topic. It's kind of a new ish topic.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Um yeah, I suppose it's kind of a an elongated kind of chit chat. We might as well skip over the chit chat and get right to wrist check, but uh yeah, I'm just uh really excited about Toronto and and that's gonna be quite the quite the epic day that Saturday. I think you know everybody's gonna just be able to ready to sleep on Sunday. But uh yeah it should be great. I just uh actually booked my my flights this morning, so I'm all set to go and uh Oh
James Stacy nice. Looking forward to getting up there. It's um leaving
Jason Heaton next Thursday, which is pretty pretty crazy. So all right, well what are you wearing? I'm guessing we both uh well I'm guessing you're wearing a Rolex today.
James Stacy I am, yeah. we did sync up. I saw that you put a Rolex on on the list as well. I figured, you know, I'm coming to Milan for what I assume won't be uh like I said, uh the next submariner. I could be e I could be looking so foolish right now. Who knows, right? By the time this comes out, it could maybe maybe it's the new submarine. I have no idea. Um, but whatever it is, I I figured it was more um date just than Explorer 2. So I brought my 1601 linen dial, uh, which I haven't been wearing a ton, uh, but it it's great. I mean, it's weird to travel without a GMT if you're my specific type of nerd, but it's not that hard to subtract six hours or seven for this phone call. Uh and the watch itself just kind I think it just kind of fits in. It's nice and light on the wrist. It still works when it's really hot and sweaty out because it's got a bracelet. And um and yeah, it's just kind of subtle and and I adore the dial and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. I've talked about this watch before.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And did you set the date or no?
James Stacy I did. I did. I was so worried about uh I know, right? Uh I was so worried about like, well, I'll have to do a rich shot at some point as like a story for Instagram. Well I'm we're in Milan for this or that. And so yeah, I set the date. it is showing uh the fourteenth. Um it did I did it in three sittings
Jason Heaton because I think it was like the twenty-eighth
James Stacy when I started like thirteenth. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Right. And I did it and then eventually the crown
James Stacy starts to feel kind of heavy. Yeah. And I go, oh this, is feeling destructive. And then I give it a couple hours and then I was sitting down and and I did it again and then I finished it on the plane. But yes, I did do I did I thought of you because I know you I I'll just rock it. Like I'll pick it up to wear it for a day. I'm not gonna change the date. Um, but yes, uh I I am I am showing the accurate date and it's keeping good time. So all signs are pointing towards uh another rock steady Rolex.
Jason Heaton Yeah, good. Well I've got mine on as well. I've got my uh my submariner on. Um it was not planned. I had you know really didn't plan this around your your trip or Rolex event or anything like that. I just um I don't know, over the weekend I just uh had been wearing something else for for a few days. I actually had on my my old Brightling Nava timer on a bun strap and then I just uh was doing some puttering around out in the garage and thought I should put on something a little less fragile and rare and uh that was the submariner. so that's what I've got on and it's uh doing its thing. So yeah, two Rolexes today. good call.
James Stacy Yeah, a a rare double up on these, especially 'cause I don't wear this watch that often and I feel like you go through stints with the 14060, where you'll wear it a bunch and then not for a while. Uh and I feel like it was a watch that came up way more commonly before the FXD was in your life. And they are yeah, I
Jason Heaton was in some realm, they are
James Stacy such similar watches. But and then at the same time, kinda couldn't be more different. It's kind of an interesting like it depends on how what view you take on them. Um but yeah, I I you know that that is my like one of my top three Rolex uh steel you know five digit models. I I love the SD from that generation as well. Uh really cool stuff. So uh glad uh glad to see that's getting a bit of wrist time. And then I I apologize if I blanked on it. Uh bracelet or strap that you have it on now. You're a bracelet guy with that for the most part, right?
Unknown Yeah, I've I've I've tried it over the years on
Jason Heaton different straps and I just I can't uh I it just nothing I I I feel like Rolex just looks just right on on a bracelet. I mean it's just it just feels good. I mean NATO's okay, but I I always end up going back to the to the bracelet. So that's where it's at.
James Stacy Yeah, it's good stuff. Yeah. All right.
Jason Heaton Yeah. So let me explain a new
James Stacy show topic. You'll have seen the title. It's called Loose Ends. and basically, Jason and I will constantly have text messages going back and forth that are kind of 5% of a show topic, which means they just never make it to the show. Because like how how much could like uh I'll I'll kick off with one of the more vapid ones in my list and you'll understand kind of the tone in just a moment. But the idea was you know, we have all these things that we're currently into that maybe aren't core either could be core TGN topics but aren't developed enough for a whole episode, or maybe they require a guest in the future, but we don't want to miss the moment to talk about it now. Maybe it's just something that we're liking. It's there'll be a mix of this that feels very like an extension of final notes, but then another part of this will be like an extension of chit-chat. So it's kind of like a show with no main topic. And it it's something that I've been kicking around as that, you know, as possibly being something that could fill in the months where we don't have enough questions for QA episodes. Because we don't always have like sometimes the delay is Jason and I get busy or I don't I don't put it on the calendar red readily enough. But other times we go into the folder and there's like nine questions from one person. So unless we want to do uh you know a Bill Smith episode of QA, we don't have an episode to do. And that, you know, then we ask for more questions, which I guess is what I'm doing now. If you have a question for a QA, please send it in. but this is sort of uh what I was thinking might be sort of you know it's it's riffing on something I used to love, which was um uh the uh uh Tim Ferris podcast, uh every now and then, you know, most of their episodes were long format interviews. Every now and then Tim would have Kevin Rose on and they would do a random episode.
Jason Heaton Oh, sure. Where they were literally just kind of having
James Stacy a conversation about whatever they were into at the time. And like, look, I don't think Jason and I are going to talk about uh designer tequila and places to get the highest quality grasshopper protein and peptides. I haven't seen all of Jason's list, to be clear, but it's that sort of an idea. So there's my belabored explanation for what uh you know, for me feels like a very classic idea of a podcast, which is just like we're gonna get into a few things that we're into and we'll go from there. And if it's something that people enjoy, cool. maybe we turn it into something that's happens monthly separately. Or if it's people don't like it, we won't do it again.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Easy enough. Uh
James Stacy do you want me to kick it off with my a fairly vapid one? This is so dumb, but it has changed my opinion of a cold drink, an entire category of water.
Jason Heaton Wow. And it's become like my
James Stacy go-to treat during the day.
Jason Heaton Okay. Okay. This is the coconut
James Stacy americano. It is espresso and coconut water over ice.
Jason Heaton Wow, over ice. Okay. Yeah, I got
James Stacy it at uh I got it at a shop in in Soho like down the street from the office called I think it's called Frame. If you go there, get one, it's awesome.
Jason Heaton Mm-hmm. But then you know every now and then
James Stacy you just like it's a really hot day in the city and you go, oh I'd I'd really love something that feels like a little bit more hydrating. And then there's a bit of sweetness to coconut water. There is sugar in coconut water, which I I tend to try and avoid not drinking sugar unless it's been aged for a long time in an oak barrel. Um, but I got this and then like uh like the next time I went to the store when I was back home in Toronto, I went out and bought uh some coconut water and I drank through it very
Jason Heaton quickly. I'm a big fan of coconut water. I just I had never thought about mixing it with espresso. Um do you is there any other additional sweetener added? Because coconut water's you know got natural sugars and it's sort of sweet, but
James Stacy I think this is this this is the sweet for people who don't like like me aren't big sweet people.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. It's like it just
James Stacy it's one of the weirder flavors of a drink I've ever had.
Jason Heaton I'm gonna make it you get dip you get
James Stacy different strata of the amount of coffee versus the amount of coconut water as you drink it.
Jason Heaton But the the mixing of them, especially
James Stacy when it's very coconut water forward, is not it doesn't taste like anything else I've ever drank. And I find it delightful. I understand there's a fair amount of sugar in coconut water. So if you're sensitive to that sort of thing, okay. Um, but I absolutely love this. Highly recommend.
Jason Heaton Well, that sounds great. I I've got my espresso machine all set up here, and uh I think there's a I think there's a container of coconut water in the fridge. I I I tend to drink coconut water after like a long run or something is sort of a electrolyte replenishment strategy. Um and it kind of works well for me. But uh I'd never thought about mixing with espresso. So that's uh
James Stacy yeah that's a good one. And if that's an indication of where we're
Jason Heaton headed today, you know, uh buckle up people. This is uh Well
James Stacy and it was it was good time it was good timing on my part because I think I mentioned it on the show that um I guess two months ago maybe when whenever the Odyssey first kind of hit theaters, I I bought a new grinder. Um I bought I bought it secondhand from a friend of mine, the a niche zero. It's kind of a higher end coffee grinder. And it just immediately overpowered my $300 DeLongi machine. And I've talked about this before on the show. I've I've been looking into a new machine for about two or three years, assuming this one would eventually die.
Jason Heaton Yeah. But I don't r feel really comfortable
James Stacy replacing a perfectly fine espresso machine just to have a a better one.
Jason Heaton Yeah. It feels it will
James Stacy go to a landfill. Like unless if I found someone in my life who's like, oh, I would take that off your hands and use it every day.
Jason Heaton Much easier decision. But like I can't imagine
James Stacy it just sitting and like decaying in a drawer or like in a cabinet somewhere.
Jason Heaton It could go to the cottage, but then it's only going to be used on
James Stacy weekends occasionally. So, anyways, I'm trying not to be wasteful on those sorts of things. So I will get another machine. I think I have an idea of what I want, but right now, I figured the weakest chain, the weakest part of the whole chain in my coffee mis system was this uh grinder I had a barraza encore uh for years, which really doesn't even at its best get down to like true espresso level grind.
Jason Heaton Mm-hmm. If you want to get nerdy about it.
James Stacy So I picked up this niche and it just immediately overpowered the Stalonghi, where it was just consistently like the machine would just shut off. Huh? You'd like start it, it would build pressure, it would go, nah, I'm done. Just shut off. Uh, it's like an overpressure thing or a voltage thing. I don't really know. Um, so I what I was using was an open basket, so like a traditional espresso um portafilter. And then I was using a screen on top to try and keep the grinds from you know getting the the head all covered in coffee.
Jason Heaton Mm-hmm. And once I stopped
James Stacy using the screen, it got way better. I'm making really good coffee at home now. I'm excited for you to try a cup.
Jason Heaton Oh yeah. Uh when when you're up in a couple weeks.
James Stacy I think I think I'm really starting to dial in what this machine is capable of. And it seems to be hitting plenty of pressure. I've got the grind settings at half what they were with the screen.
Jason Heaton Yeah. So it's like quite fine. Yeah.
James Stacy And that it just tastes great. So that's my many minutes on coffee. I which I wasn't planning on. But put put it with America put it with coconut water. I will have coconut water for us when when you're here. This'll be our you know, pre gaming power drink.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Uh for our many parties. I will uh and the
James Stacy the one the other thing that's nice and it I don't say this commonly 'cause I'm I like iced coffee, but I don't like it to get all watered down.
Jason Heaton Mm-hmm. If the main of your iced
James Stacy coffee is water, what's the difference?
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Right. Like I could make one
James Stacy of these, put it in a put it in a thermos without any ice, get the thermos cold enough,
Jason Heaton mm-hmm, and then just drop some ice in it before
James Stacy I leave the house. And you could have this to sip on all day. And it's like refreshing and weirdly tastes like kind of oddly healthy. I'm not sure how to describe it.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I bet it does. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you could freeze coconut water. Like coconut water ice cubes. Oh my goodness. Look at this guy.
James Stacy Loose ends paying off in the first few minutes. Yeah, I'll just make ice cubes.
Jason Heaton Yeah, there you go. Yeah. I
James Stacy love this. This is great. So that that's what we'll be sipping at the uh at the at the Toronto Time Peace show.
Jason Heaton perfect. Yeah. I um yeah, funny I I wasn't planning on talking about coffee, but I you know, remember I was it was it Christmas I I sent you that North Face branded um mocha Bioletti mocha pop? Yep,
James Stacy so they use frequently at the cottage.
Jason Heaton Yeah, which I um I've had one of those for years. Not the not the North Face one, but just kind of the standard one. And um I just find that that's my go-to for coffee all the time. I I think it kind of r reawakened my my interest in making coffee that way when I saw that one and and ordered it for you. And then I decided to kind of dust off my old one. And it's it's kind of how I'm making my coffee every morning. I do I do have my old 30-year old espresso machine too on the counter too, but that's uh it's a little more work and I just you know that's kind of more for an afternoon pick me up. But uh yeah, it's uh the mo the mocha pot's been my go-to for coffee. And it it doesn't make sense. Dude, it makes
James Stacy great coffee. It really does. And And it
Jason Heaton it it it doesn't hurt that one of the final notes that I had a couple of weeks ago was this I noticed a few people on Slack um cursing me for introducing them to this or for uh I think it was Brad, uh guy named Brad on Slack who who initially brought it up, but the Martin Dullard
James Stacy There's probably only one Brad. Yeah, right. Martin.
Jason Heaton Martin Dullard, the the guy on um on YouTube, that the Dutchman who's been refurbishing that Italian uh cabin, um, he's always making these mocha espresso. Like he everything he does is very deliberate. He's I see him making a lot of sourdough bread, and everything he does is very considered and deliberate. He's always making these mocha pots of coffee and and Christy and I watch you know, are watching this regularly now um in the evenings and I'm always like tempted to get up and make a decaf version of that. So um anyway, yeah, I think we can probably move on from coffee.
James Stacy yeah, for sure. What have you got? Um
Jason Heaton You know, there's something that I discovered um and I haven't talked about it a lot because you know we've we've done a couple of kind of fitness exercise types uh episodes, you know, quite a while ago in the past. Um, but I haven't brought this up a lot, but starting gosh, it's coming up on a year ago, I guess it was last fall or winter. Um we we we joined a I don't know if you even call it a gym, uh kind of a a fitness training studio. It's a pretty small place um here in Minneapolis. It's less than a mile from here, which is convenient, um, and have just been taking strength classes. Um, and I am not someone who has ever enjoyed indoor exercise or, you know, treadmills, stair climbers, lifting weights, anything like that. I've always kind of been a a bit of a snobby kind of purist about like I'm just gonna go out and do pushups in the woods and, you know, run up and down hills and go for runs and ski and all that kind of stuff. But um we decided to to sign up for this this fitness studio place um run by a local woman and and her partner who also run a kind of a local cycling team and they do regular classes, you know, almost every day of the week and we tend to go And it's an hour long and it's just good it it feels really good and it's surprising me that that I'm enjoying strength training as much as I am because I mean let's face it, I'm I'm 56 and you know, they always say that, you know, you you just start to lose muscle mass after, you know, your mid-40s into your 50s and so on. And it's really good to kind of keep up with strength training and kind of impactful exercise to kind of keep your bones strong and keep your muscle mass up. And I'm just finding that I I'm getting almost as much enjoyment out of these classes as I do being out in the fresh air and running and kind of feeling my heart rate go up. And
James Stacy um it it it I I I
Jason Heaton won't say it's changed my life, but I it's not not far from that. I think it's it's just kind of opened up it's it's been very revelatory to me how much enjoyment I get from kind of feeling feeling a different level of exhaustion and exertion, you know. Um I know in the past you you know you've done some some weight training mainly on your own kind of at home. Yeah. Have you ever have you ever done like classes, like like regular strength classes?
James Stacy No. Uh when I I mean a very, very long time ago when I was still living in Hamilton, I had a a regular gym routine with a couple guys I worked with.
Jason Heaton Oh yeah. And I I went into
James Stacy the gym having like never gone to a gym before, had had never really lifted a weight necessarily. I was early twenties.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And uh and I remember that
James Stacy being like having that group of guys that you'd go for an hour after work and it was like the it felt like a very healthy time of my life. And then when I got to Vancouver and I realized like, you know, it's that idea that a you know a a habit, good or bad, can take can take hold in like a month.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And I I know
James Stacy that I really like working out. I just hate that first month.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. And because of my
James Stacy build, because the rest of it, it's very easy for me to do the first month of running or cycling. But I won't push myself. With weights, it's very difficult not to push yourself.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Like I've never really had it where you just
James Stacy kind of like, oh I did my workout, it was okay.
Jason Heaton Right. I just whatever it is
James Stacy about my mentality or the fact that I'm weak, probably a c a d a very considerable combination of both of those two facts means that like if you're doing a if I'm if I'm using my bow flex weights at home even though which isn't that much weight.
Jason Heaton But if you're talking like it's not that much to deadlift,
James Stacy but it is plenty for all for a bunch of other motions or like a big kettlebell or something like that, for sure. You can you can definitely get to the point where like you're done and you're like, wow, I'm like you hours later you feel still kind of beat up from it or worn out by it, but it's like a very pleasant sort of way of feeling.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And I I I I one thing I've always hesitated or has kept me from doing kind of strength classes or personal training or whatever you want to call it, um, classes is the um I I don't like doing things in unison with a big group of people. And I always imagine that that's how it was going to be like this room full of people all facing the instructor and all like doing the same motion at the same time over and over. Yeah. That is what I don't really like. Yeah, exactly. Right. So but this is this is very much like the the instructor, it's it's almost like w almost like one-on-one personal training, except she kind of moves through the group of people and the classes maybe ten to fifteen people max on any given evening, and um, you know, she kind of breaks up the group into three or four and then just says, okay, you guys go over and do these four exercises, you know, 20 reps of each, blah blah blah and switch off and do you know, and you're kind of moving from there's very little use of machines, it's a lot with, you know, kettlebells and free weights and um body weight stuff, um ab stuff, you know, medicine balls and bosu balls and um and that sort of stuff. And uh I I I I wear my garmin when I do this and I have found that my heart rate during some of these um these things, you know, using the heavy ropes or the kettlebells and things like this, my heart rate's actually getting up higher than it is on on a run. Yeah, it is hard cardio. I was surprised by that. And anyway, so I would say strength training is something I've been into cool for the better part of of the year now. And uh you know, we haven't really talked about it, but it's been it's been great. It made it gives me kind of a boost. It feels really good.
James Stacy Well, look, we're only a few minutes in and we're closer to peptides than I thought. Uh you know, on a future loose ends, Jason and I will be talking about our creatine, you know, cycling. Yeah. and that sort of thing.
Jason Heaton Yeah. On that topic, I I've never I don't know if I ever told you this. There was a guy who was for a brief stint during that defender trophy competition back in April, a young guy who was um riding along, he was one of the competitors, and he had this um this portable little refrigeration unit and it was looked like a the size of a a flask or thermos or whatever that he had to plug into the USB outlet of the defender while we're doing this off road driving. And I said, What is that thing? And he said, it's a fridge. And he said, I had to keep my peptides in there and I inject myself during the day.
James Stacy Yeah. I I I was just I it was
Jason Heaton the first I'd I'd kind of seen that sort of thing up close. I'd read vaguely about peptides, but um yeah, I mean I'm I suspect there's some maybe some people in the Slack or in the crew that are kind of dabbling in that sort of thing or know more about it. But uh I was it it was real eye-opener to me. I just it wasn't anything I'm interested in. Um, you know, never say never. But uh yeah, it was just it felt like a lot of a lot of bother um for for that. But uh who knows for sure. Yeah.
James Stacy Well, look, if I don't get back to the weight sometime soon, I'll need the other jab sometime soon. Yeah. So what are you gonna do?
Jason Heaton Exactly. Right. It'll be one
James Stacy of the other, right? Uh but that's great, man. Yeah. Strength training, it's it's one of those things where like when I when I like try and sit down and be intentional about the next like six months of my life, it's it is always the number one. It's like you have to go back to push ups and sit-ups and air squats and some kettlebell stuff until you love it again. Yeah. Cause once you love it, it's really easy.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. I just I hate those
James Stacy first few weeks when everything hurts and it hurts to lay down and it hurts to go up a so stairs. Right. And like sure, maybe maybe I'm very weak and working out too hard, all that kind of stuff. But um yeah, I I'm happy for you, man. That's great. And being a year into something like that, you're like you feel different than you did a year ago.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Like demonstrably different for sure. Yeah. That's cool.
James Stacy All right. Next one on mine. You know, I I talked about it a bit on the show in the past and I I said I didn't really want to talk about it more until it was real or not. And it as it turns out, it's not going to be real for me. I came as close as I've ever come to buying a car, uh like a sports car.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Um, this is uh more of a collector
James Stacy vintage style car. It's a it's a late 50s alpha, um, owned by Cole Pennington, who you know has been on the show several times. He has this gorgeous uh Julieta Sprint Feloche. Um I went as far as you know going out to his hometown in in New Jersey and driving it and figuring out all of the importing and the shipping and the various taxes and the brokerage. And I'll tell you what, if I lived in the States, I there's no question I would have bought it. Um it's just the the complexity currently of getting it over the border and the fact that every time I had a phone call with a different person who was part of it, uh it just added another it was there every phone call is another two or three thousand dollars. And by the time you total everything up, you go one, so much more than I had originally planned on spending for a sports car. And two, um, so so many so much more that like won't be recouped if I sell it. Like kind of floating costs, if you will.
Jason Heaton Mm-hmm. Um, I'm not even sure that's the right term for
James Stacy the cost, but like cost I'm not gonna necessarily get back. You know, it'd be good to have it in Canada. Absolutely gorgeous car, pretty close to like my ideal of what I'd want, which is a very hard driving, loud, cammed, not easy to drive, not you know, nothing really coddling about it. It's a vintage race car essentially. Yeah. But yeah, just it just I I couldn't really make it work on top of not having anywhere to store it, uh, nowhere to put it during the driving season, certainly. And uh and and you know, a few other struggles along that. Sarah and I were on board to have a a car for sort of these uses and it's something that's been important to me since I was five, I guess.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Uh I've just never I've I've
James Stacy never been in that phase of life to make it happen. And uh but you know, big shout out to Cole for his patience, uh patience with me. I'm sure the next time he's on the show we'll talk more about it. It's such a cool thing, but uh it doesn't, it doesn't make sense uh for me sadly. If you're in the States and you're keen, I'm happy to connect you uh with coal. Um and uh if you're not paying several taxes on top of everything else, then it it probably would make good sense. It was a fair price for sure.
Jason Heaton yeah, that's too bad. I remember you kind of told me what he was selling it for, and I thought, okay, that that you know, that sounds in the realm of possibility. Then you told me what
James Stacy it was like a friend it wasn't like a uh you know a screaming deal. It was a good deal. Good for the price.
Jason Heaton Right. But then like then when you told me what it would cost you in the end to get it across the border, it was like almost double that. And it was like, wow, that's that's insane. So that's that's it creeped
James Stacy up pretty fast. Yeah. And I could have like obviously I don't I don't have to have it shipped, I could try and drive it back, but we are talking about a nearly seventy year old car that's heavily modified.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Um so at one
James Stacy point I knew I was probably in over my head when I was looking at the route I could drive it home that would take me past as many reputable shops as possible.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Every
James Stacy time that I made like a concession or a new note in Notion and like started to build this huge database about the car, and every way I was thinking about it, and all the compiled costs, I finally was like, This is taking up a lot of like mental time in your life, and probably how many times you can even drive it for that much money a year. So just sadly didn't work out for me. I'm looking at other stuff now, but I'm you know, I don't know. Maybe I've soured a little bit to the idea for the time being.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's too bad. Well it I guess it it if anything, it cemented the a certain decision or or created sort of a scenario that you know you probably can't do, which is the import thing, at least with a car of that value. Probably not. It
James Stacy would have to be an it would have to be an incredible deal, or it'd have to be at a different stage of my life.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Right. If I had a garage, if I had
James Stacy a garage space to keep the car and maybe I had already done it before or it was uh you know, this would be my first ever kind of car just for fun. Mm-hmm. And it's a you know, it's vintage alpha. There's gonna be a lot of times that it's not that much fun in
Jason Heaton reality. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so yeah,
James Stacy just I think I think I got over my skis on this one. Um, but for somebody, uh, or or you know, if it if it ends up going for sale somewhere else, it'll be very interesting to watch because it's uh you don't see them in that color, you don't see 750s that often in general, uh, type 750s, and then this is a 1750 GTV motor, which is the high-reving one. I mean, it's it's just the sound is insane, the gearbox is insane. It's all great. I loved it.
Jason Heaton Yeah. This makes me sad talking about it.
James Stacy So let's uh let's find a new topic. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Okay. I won't I won't talk about well, I can I can talk about gearboxes and old old vehicle woes, I guess if that makes it do any better. So my um you know I've got this series three Land Rover, we talked a little while ago. I got that uh truck cab put on it, and and I love driving it in that spec, but um it's it's got this long long simmering creeping up problem um with the gearbox and that is um the there's a seal that that has kind of failed on the on the input shaft from the from the engine or from the in into the gearbox and it it causes oil to kind of get on the clutch plate and that causes what's called juttering, which is this as you're as you're engaging the clutch, it doesn't grab, you know, entirely. And so you get this sort of violent sort of shaking as you're engaging gears, especially the lower lower gears and like first and reverse and even second. Um and then after you drive for a while, it kind of burns off that that oil that's on the clutch plate and then it kind of does okay. But it' its's progressively getting worse to the point where I feel like it needs I need to address it at some point soon. And this coincides with the fact that having moved um into a new house um that has a bigger garage, there's the possibility that I could try to tackle this myself. Now it's it's a way bigger automotive job than I've ever done. Um because it requires to get to the gearbox, you have to pull up the floor, take the seats out, and then get an engine crane and and actually kind of unbolt it from the back of the engine and lift it up and kind of take it out the side of the vehicle, which sounds worse than it is. I mean there are plenty of YouTube videos and and that I've seen that it it's all hand tools and it's all fairly accessible to do this. But it's it's a lot of work and it it's intimidating if if I'm honest. And so I'm kind of kind of staring down this this prospect of of, you know, I can keep putting it off and kind of limping along with with my little techniques to kind of burn off the oil off the clutch and deal with the big puddles underneath it. But um so yeah, it's kind of lent this this new kind of interest in in kind of tackling more stuff myself. I've got a little more space to do it. I'm I'm just kind of trying to be a little more considerate with you know, like you were talking about with your espresso machine and not just kind of just quickly flipping things or or dumping things in in landfills to kind of get the newest and and best. And so I've been kind of trying to do a little bit more kind of refurbishment or DIY improvements of things. And one of those um you, know, moving on from from Land Rover repairs is I had this old uh what they call a caboose stove. It's a it's an old wood burning stove that they used to put in in railroad cabooses to, you know, warm the compartment um for the the guys that were riding back there. And it used to just be sitting in a neighbor's yard, kind of just rusting away. It's this cast iron thing. And then it had this bad white paint job all over it. And when the neighbor was moving, I said, oh, I'll take that. So I I took it and kind of used it in that way for several years. Um and then just a couple of weeks ago, I just decided I wanted to refinish it. So I just I kind of took all the doors off and um got a wire wheel on on a a drill and some some sandpaper and just started kind of taking off all the all the surface rust and all the old paint. Um and it looked great and I considered just kind of clear coating it somehow and and keeping it the way it was, but I ended up spraying it with uh with some black high temperature paint and uh fired it up for the first time two nights ago um to kind of I guess you have to cure it, you know, by building your first fire. Um and it's just been kind of fun and I'm I'm kind of looking forward to doing more of that type of stuff with you know I've as I've been organizing the garage kind of going through old tools that are kind of rusty you know the kind of stuff that you maybe a few years ago I would have looked at and said, uh you, know, time to part ways with this or, you know, get rid of it or put it out on the curb for somebody to take or scrap metal or something like that. And I just I I I'm kind of keen on on just kind of bringing things back to life. and maybe again, maybe going back to that, you know, Martin Dullard on YouTube, like he's he's he's kind of into that himself and it sort of rubs off a little bit, I think, just sort of this idea of keeping old things going. I guess that's kind of my theme, including myself with the strength training.
James Stacy And do you Yeah,
Jason Heaton right. Uh and uh
James Stacy do you do you have a bench grinder? Wire wheel, all that kind of stuff?
Jason Heaton You know, I have a bench grinder. It's funny you mentioned that. I've got a really old one that was my grandfather's, um which I could use for for kind of sharpening tools and things, but sharpening, grinding
James Stacy knocking rust off of stuff. Yeah,
Jason Heaton exactly. Right. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. So it's it's kind of fun. It's very satisfying. Yeah.
James Stacy For sure. Yeah, no, it uh I agree. There's very little in the world like um you know, have having something in, you know, someday when you visit the cottage, you'll see, you know, we have a barn full of old fasteners and screwdrivers and stuff like that. And like finding the one that's right and it's like still pretty nice quality and maybe you fix the handle or yeah, you grind the rust off it or something like that. it is kind of nice.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Um and 'cause it's gonna do
James Stacy the exact same thing. And a lot of these things were designed to be re-sharpened, to be be adjusted in some way, to have the handle repaired, you know, that it's a wood shank held on by a screw or a uh, you know, a piece or something. So yeah, that's good stuff.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Right. Uh yeah, I I
James Stacy guess on the topic of building stuff, I had a recent trade with our buddy Andrew Green of the OT podcast. Oh yeah. Um he was looking he was looking for a a case for watches and I had something kind of burning a hole in my closet. So I said I would send it his way and, he said, Well, I'll send you something in return. And he sent me a lot of something in the
Jason Heaton end. Uh so Andrew
James Stacy is affiliated with uh HeBe, uh this company that makes all sorts of accessories, but their their main core is sort of mechanical keyboard kits for the trays and and you know everything up to the switches and the keycaps and all that sort of stuff.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And so he sent me enough for
James Stacy myself and Sarah and my girls to all build a keyboard.
Jason Heaton Hmm. Hmm. Wow. So I
James Stacy had to get the switches, which he rec y he helped me with all this because it there's a lot to learn the first time you do this. But the switches and the stabilizers and the keycaps and and all that. And then basically, you it's like building a model. The stabilizers have to be lubricated and then set into the board. The board has to be set into sort of a system where uh it kind of orientates all the other pieces and then each switch is installed into the board, and then the caps are installed on the switch. And I'm simplifying things. There are little padded stickers and other little tiny things that go throughout. And uh, and if you want you can lubricate every switch if that's your if that's your zone. This is my first time if you build a lot of keyboards you can just click you know fast forward three or four times there and and you'll get to the end of this but I've been having a blast with it. Like as a thing to do at night, to sit down and like mess with a keyboard. And they have, you know, these videos from Hibi. Uh I'm so I've been building a Habi key, which is a 65% keyboard layout with this carbon fiber uh or composite carbon, like real composite carbon frame, um, and then like a PCB that drops into that and you install everything into the PCB. And uh my first time through I probably over lubricated the stabilizers, they're a little muddy. Hmm. Um, and that's what keeps your the big keys, your shift key, your enter key, your certainly your space bar from like rocking side to side, only allowing it to go straight up and down.
Jason Heaton Oh, okay. Um really,
James Stacy really fun experience. And then like for my daughters to be able to go on like AliExpress and pick keycaps. Uh like based on a theme. My nine-year-old was like all do like watermelon theme 'cause the the board that Andrew sent was this sort of like reddish orange pink color.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Uh very cool thing.
James Stacy And she bought like these sort of minty green, off green sort of keycaps and we we built it the other day in the kitchen. It's so much fun.
Jason Heaton Huh. Yeah. It's what do what do you lubricate them with? What is it like little drops? Like a little dropper or something?
James Stacy Uh you buy like a little a little pot of this specific lubrication. And then like with a um with a like a uh fine paintbrush.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Huh, interesting. Wow. Yeah, you know, regardless of what it is, I mean I think I can't see myself building keyboards anytime soon, but the this idea of kind of a nightly little task, a little something to do while you're doing something else, or or even just just the idea of the thing used to like building Lego,
James Stacy right? Yeah, exactly. This is very Lego adjacent.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool.
James Stacy And I I'm fortunate enough to have the Rolls Royce of keyboards given to me a few years ago. Uh shout out Caleb. Uh I assume you're listening. Um, but uh Caleb and this guy Ryan Norbower, Ryan makes some of the nicest keyboards in the world. Um so I have and I'll you'll have to see it. I don't I don't know if I had it when you were here last. Probably not. It probably came just after that. But you'll see it um when you're here in a couple weeks. Uh it so the keyboard base is travertine, like marble..
Jason Heaton Yeah Wow. So it weighs like
James Stacy fifteen pounds. Oh my god.
Jason Heaton And it's just the most pleasing thing to
James Stacy type on. Wow. And these stabilizers, which I mentioned, you know, I bought a set of stabilizers for keyboards, like twelve dollars or something from Amazon. The stabilizers in Ryan's keyboards are like the most fastidious, designed, insane, intense. You know, he he has a great video, which I can include if people are nerdy about this of Ryan speaking with um Adam Savage from Mythbusters about designing and building his own keyboards. And it all comes down to these special stabilizers. This is absurdly expensive.
Jason Heaton Yeah. This is like if you if you didn't know a thing
James Stacy about watches and you found up and you found out what a Blanc Pond costs.
Jason Heaton Oh sure. Yeah. Wow. And you'd be
James Stacy like, oh, oh. why? The same it does the same thing as the one built into my computer and you uh it it achieves the same thing. It doesn't do the same thing.
Jason Heaton Right. Uh but yeah, so uh I'll you'll have to
James Stacy check out it's uh Norbauer Seneca, which I'm I'm it was in it one of the more incredible things I've ever been gifted in my life. But uh I'll show it to you when you're up here next.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Wow. Great. So yeah that's building keyboards.
James Stacy Big shout out to Andrew. What a lovely guy.
Jason Heaton Yeah, that's cool. That's great. And uh very
James Stacy talented. Um, very cool company that he had he had been working with um with Hebe. Uh and yeah, cool keyboards. I'm I'm enjoying it. I don't love my keycaps and I want to redo the so
Jason Heaton Well I've just got a couple more things on my list. I mean I think one just uh terms of um kind of reading lately, you know, consuming uh media, so to speak. I've I've been actually been watching a lot less um TV lately. I mean other than the the the the YouTube series which I keep talking about. But I've just I've been listening to a lot of audiobooks. Most recently I'm actually kind of working through there was a a a thread on Slack in the in the book club channel about Anthony Horowitz and and his continuation Bond novels. And I I'm a huge fan of Horowitz. I've I've read a lot of his his work, and and you might not be familiar with him, but you might be familiar with his his work because he's done a lot of stuff in TV. Um he's done uh if you remember there was a series called Foyle's War, he did all the writing for that. Um he did um magpie murders. That was his book actually that got turned into a movie.
James Stacy I know I recognize the name. I don't think I watched it.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I I I have a feeling your mom knows about uh Anthony Horowitz, I bet she's a big fan of kind of Foyle's War and Magpie Murders and that sort of thing. But um he he's he was also a big Bond fan and he wrote two James Bond continuation novels. You know, there have been a number of authors over the years that they've invited to do that with, including Kim Sherwood, whom we had on the show. Shout
James Stacy out Kim. And um and Horowitz
Jason Heaton uh I mean I think he's done some of the best, best of those, those things. Anyway, he does this series of books that are that are called the the Hawthorne, I think it's just called the Hawthorne series. And it's kind of interesting. It's a very meta sort of concept because he's kind of writing as himself, uh, as a murder mystery writer who befriends a retired detective who's now a consultant on murder trials or murder cases, and they kind of pal around together. And Horowitz is very self-deprecating. Hawthorne is the detective, and he's very aloof, very smart. Um, and it and there's this wittiness and and so it's kind of this mix between sort of murder, mystery, black comedy, um, very self-deprecating humor. and I'm some of it just makes me laugh out loud. And the best thing about it, well, not the best thing, I shouldn't say the best thing, but one of the things I love is that I'm I've always listened to the audiobook versions and they're read by Rory Kinneer, um who you might know as Tanner in the the l most recent kind of Bond films. He's kind of the balding guy who's always paling around with M. Um,
James Stacy course. Rory Kaneer. He's got a great
Jason Heaton voice, and he is he's one of the best audiobook readers I've um I've heard. And he he's done this whole series, and he it just makes it so enjoyable. So that's what I've been I've been reading a lot of that. So
James Stacy that sounds really good, man. Like I don't need uh any more books to clog up my Kindle. I've got like five that I should finish.
Jason Heaton Yeah. But I'll I'll at least put
James Stacy a heart on one of these and check it out. Do you have it? What's the starting point? Should do I start with a bond? Do I start with one from Hawthorne?
Jason Heaton I think um well they're so different. Um I would start with one of the Bond ones. I I can't remember the titles of of his, but um
Unknown Okay. Just his first one. Yeah, just his first
Jason Heaton one. it's really good. Yeah, it's good stuff.
James Stacy All right. Yeah. Yeah. My final my final little note that I made here was I I think I spoke previously about you know re-watching some movies that I hadn't seen in a while with my daughters. Um I and that kind of culminated in in August with me moving the the home theater. Yeah, I mean it's we call it a home theater stereo. It's not. It's just it's a large two-speaker system. Up to my office installing a projector screen and a projector.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Uh so we could do like movie
James Stacy nights that don't mean that Sarah who just wants to knit and sit down in our bedroom, um, which is where the TV is, uh, doesn't have to be part of some of these, depending on the movie, of course. Um, you know, Sarah's ha happy to watch the new new season of the Grand Tour, but less interested in watching The Matrix, uh, for example, uh yet again. So but we we read I spoke about watching Speed, which is great. Um and then we did the first they have we haven't watched the Matrix, the third Matrix, but we did the first and the second. And those movies are just they've held up very well, I think.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Uh there's elements
James Stacy of them that are goofy, but I would have challenged you to have done it any other way in nineteen ninety-nine and have it not be goofy now.
Unknown You know what I mean? Like just f find find
James Stacy an option where that wasn't a possibility. I just I don't quite believe it. And then the other one that we watched that just hasn't lost hasn't lost one little bit of its cutting ability is Sean of the Dead.
Jason Heaton Oh, I love that movie. Which has been, you know,
James Stacy I'm just a huge uh you know, Coronetto trilogy fan. My favorite will always be Hot Fuzz. I think it's the best script of the three. I think it's one of the funniest movies ever made. Uh but Shawn of the Dead, especially with like um two younger audience members that are like just learning about tropes
Jason Heaton in horror films, whether it be zombies or
James Stacy otherwise. Yeah. It just it hit really then it hit differently between the two girls. They're two different ages,
Jason Heaton and kind of have two different understandings of British
James Stacy humor and colloquialism and that sort of thing. Yeah. But both of them recognized um Sean, uh Simon Pegg as as Benji from uh the Mission Impossible series. So they had that connective tissue there.
Jason Heaton Mm-hmm. Yeah, you know, and he's very funny in those as
James Stacy well. And they got to see him kind of at his funniest in this uh what a great movie. I don't I don't really have a point to this. But like if you haven't seen Shawn of the Dead in a while or the Matrix.
Jason Heaton Yeah. and if you've got kids that like
James Stacy maybe maybe they you know they wanna watch something on YouTube but you don't understand the lore behind, you know, this is like my daughter describing backrooms to me as we were watching the film, you can flip that on its head and show them something really great from 20, 30 years ago. Uh, and some of it just holds up so well, so well. And uh the projector, in case you're interested, I didn't believe they could be this good for this little. I watched a ton of YouTube videos and bought essentially the one that everybody said was like the absolute highest bang for your buck, but really not that many bucks, is three hundred dollars. And it's just in a dark room, it is almost surprisingly good.
Jason Heaton Wow. Wow. PJ40 from
James Stacy Nexago. Uh it's not an ad I paid full price. I had to wait some time because they're sold out because people really like them.
Jason Heaton Wow. And uh having having no experience with projectors, is the you just connect via Bluetooth or or is it a hard wire connection to your laptop or
James Stacy has a bunch of connections in through the back. Um whether it's, you know, HDMI and that sort of thing. So I have a um Roku stick, like a ten eighty p Roku or four K Roku stick that goes in there and then just has that all linked up.
Jason Heaton Okay. I keep like you you can buy
James Stacy those Roku sticks on sale in Canada for $25. So I assume they're about $18, $15 in the States.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And like basically plug it into your
James Stacy computer monitor at home, log into all your stuff. And then anytime that we go to a hotel, we go up to the cottage, we do this or that. I just have the stick.
Jason Heaton Wow. That's great. Plug it into anything with HDMI,
James Stacy connect it to Wi-Fi, and you're already logged in.
Jason Heaton Hmm. Um, I'm doing a lot of Plex
James Stacy the these days, which is like I'm running a server from the NAS at my house. Yeah. And it does that really, really well. Uh so yeah, that's that that that would be the tip is some of these things you can and they're very small and they power themselves on USB and that sort of thing. So
Jason Heaton well that's that might be my biggest takeaway from uh from today's episode is uh this idea of getting a Roku stick. That's great. That's cool. Yeah. They
James Stacy keep it easy. I mean, for a long time, the only TV we had that like wasn't in my bedroom was just an old 32ch-in computer monitor with a Roku plugged in.
Jason Heaton Yeah. It was perfect. Nice. And the
James Stacy Roku's do Bluetooth audio, so if you wanted to go direct to your AirPods, like if you didn't want to have a stereo, or if you wanted to go to the Bluetooth stair that's already in the room, you could do that very easily. It's a it's a neat piece of kit.
Jason Heaton All right. Well, that was uh that was fun. I hope people enjoyed that. Um it kind of felt like just a a conversation that the normal Yeah, right. Exactly. But
James Stacy yeah, let us know what you think of this. if you thought it was uh not an episode you wanted to get through or you didn't even make it this far and we'll never hear from you. And uh fair be fair play for sure. But uh how about we jump into some final notes? I've got a heart out and a few minutes here for a dinner.
Jason Heaton Yes, definitely. Um okay this comes from uh Warren Wound. I posted this in the diving channel on Slack. Um it is the enthusiast spotlight um featuring our own uh moderator supreme, Chris Sol. Um, you know, good friend of ours, uh Chris Solver Extraordinaire, nerd Shepherd, as he calls himself.
James Stacy One of the best dudes. They did a great um
Jason Heaton kind of uh profile of of Chris. Um specifically I think it was a kind of a sponsored content with Certina and they had him diving. He did the some quarry dives with uh Jacob and uh and Chris is wearing uh a number of different um certinas, uh the kind of the the two thousand meter uh pH version. Um sharp watch, uh certainly in the watch content gre'ats, but uh just just kind of fun, it just kind of an extended interview with uh with Sol and uh really kind of uh wrote to him after that and just said, you know, proud to know you and uh he's uh just a great guy, really worthy, worthy subject of this sort of thing. So yeah, check it out.
James Stacy Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Chris is an A plus dude and uh it's really cool to see the way that he's been able to like build into the watch world, both in supporting others and getting to be part of it himself has been really exciting the last few years. Uh I saw some photos from this and I didn't realize that it extended beyond that. So I'll I'll click into this. Wonder why it's putting out some really fun stuff in this category.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And mine this week
James Stacy is for is a a recommendation from uh Tom Place. The last time I saw him, it was actually just after I drove Cole's car. He came and picked me up from Cole's driveway and we went out for coffee before I went to the airport. Uh shout out Tom, you're the best. Um but he recommended the show Furious. It's uh it's on Hulu or Disney Plus. I think those are the same. I can't really tell anymore. Um, if you like serial killer shows, uh this one is it's really gnarly for I think it's gnarlier than people might be ready for necessarily, but I'll read the Wikipedia. Furious is an American crime drama television series created by Elizabeth Merriweather and loosely inspired by the 1987 film Black Widow. The series stars Emmy Rossum as an FBI agent Alice Black, alongside Lola Peticrew as a calculating serial killer Catherine Grace. Also stars uh Quincy Tyler Bernstein, who, if you don't know her, she absolutely like from the first scene in this show, she's you know, batting a thousand and uh Scoop McNary, who's always great. Uh basically it's it's your it's this it's a similar format, if you remember um the fall with uh Julian Anderson, where you have you have you go into the psychosis of both the serial killer and the person hunting the serial killer,
Jason Heaton and the fact that they may have similar traits,
James Stacy similar proclivities, similar similarities. I don't want to give anything away. Uh, but this is one of those shows that like it finds the gas pedal in the first episode and then it kind of like grabs you by the scruff of your neck and makes sure that you know how fast the show's going. It's gnarly. Um I I highly recommend it if that sounds up your alleys. I do think you could watch the first one or two episodes and you'd know very within that zone, if this is going to be for you or not.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Um I'm I wouldn't you know it's if if
James Stacy seven is kind of at one end of the you know populous media about this topic. And um it it maybe doesn't go quite that far in many ways. There's some stuff in seven you probably couldn't put in a movie today or a show today. Uh but it's it's quite it has moments of being really well written, well paced, interesting character developments, and uh and so much of it, you know, being created by a woman and clearly informed by women's experience in the world of abuse and other kind of dark topics. it's different than I was expecting. And I'm enjoying
Jason Heaton out here with uh our usual. As always, thank you 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 thegraynato.com. Music throughout is Siesta by Jazzar via the Free Music Archive.
James Stacy And we'll leave you with this quote from William Morris, who said the true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life.