Year: 2025

It’s been about a year now since I went really deep on my home server setup, replacing a lot of what I used ot pay for with open source, self-hosted, systems which sit right next to me in the office. So I thought I would take a moment to talk through some of the software, and the hardware — what worked well and what didn’t.

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This was an interesting year for gear in a lot of ways — so I thought I would wrap up the year commenting on different gear categories and how they felt over 2025. In some ways there’s a lot of good out there, but in far too many other ways, it was disappointing.

I’ll go category by category.

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I was looking to hit a free shipping minimum and tossed in a 50th Anniversary Edition of the Wickron Long Sleeve Tee from Montbell — this is their standard active material which can be found in many variants across the lines of clothing Montbell sells. I’ve been using it for many weeks now, and thought I’d share some quick thoughts.

Generally, there’s better options on the market than this.

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I’ve written a fair amount now about Yoshida & Co’s Porter line of bags, and once you start diving down that rabbit hole, you’ll quickly find that Uniqlo makes some bags which look awfully similar to Tanker bags, but at a price well under $50. Which is crazy. I picked up the Uniqlo 2Way Utility Bag in Japan to see if the bag is any good and how it compares.

I am very torn. This is decidedly not up to quality standards of Porter, and it’s lacking some of the better Porter features. The design is very similar to Porter, and I loathe copies when I buy stuff. That said, for the price, this is a very good bag to buy. I suspect most people will see this well before they see the Tanker Helmet and Tote bags it is copying.

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Note: this item was provided for review.

I’ve been wearing my last pair of Kyrgies daily, so when they offered to send over the Bishkek Kicks, I was very excited to get them. I’ve been wearing them a couple of weeks now, and I am very happy with them. A little different than the slippers I had before, but in most ways a lot better too.

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Note: this item was provided for review.

After receiving and reviewing the Namba Slate from Shinzo Tamura I was clamoring for more. Those quickly became the only sunglasses I wear, so when they offered to send a pair of the Abeno Granite my way, I couldn’t wait. These are a different frame and a very different lens — as moving from dark lenses to very light — I wasn’t sure what to expect.

Now I am questioning all of my decisions and why I focused so heavily on dark lens sunglasses only. These hit a really sweet spot, and I love the way they look.

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Note: this item was provided for review.

I keep trying to sort out in my head how you explain one t-shirt being better than any other. It’s a simple item, with seemingly very little room for differentiation, and yet we all intuitively know there are good t-shirts and then there’s all the others. This Allevol t-shirt is very good and well worth your time and money, so I’ll do my best to explain why.

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