Author: Ben Brooks

In the past, I looked at the Malga 6, which I found mostly silly with a nice blade. The Malga 5 is a much better setup for a knife for how I want to use a knife. Now, however, we have Magnacut. Oh my.

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Note: this item was provided for review.

I’ve been wearing a lot more denim these days, while actively trying to stay away from going deep into the world of denim. At the same time, I’ve been curious about the denims people rave about. That’s why, when Gustin offered to send a pair of their 75 OKAYAMA STANDARD denim — I went for it. This felt like a great chance to dip my toes in the water, and try out my first pair of raw denim.

It’s been nothing like I expected, and I get how people can go deep on something like denim.

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Note: this item was provided for review.

My new home office is the coldest room in the house, and because of that, I’ve had cold feet a lot of the days I’ve worked in this office. Add to that my recent move from muggy and hot Houston, to cool and dry Boulder — it’s a recipe for needing slippers. Thankfully, Kyrgies sent over their Indoor Wool Slides for me to test out, and they might have found a customer for life.

I have no complaints about these.

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Note: this item was provided for review.

Many years ago, I decided to spend real money on a sweatshirt — I never saw the point in spending that much on one before then. They are all the same, right? Simply “sweatshirt material” after all. But once I got my hands on that premium sweatshirt, I realized the multitudes of nuances — a nice sweatshirt simply feels premium and undeniably nice.

While I don’t generally wear sweatshirts day to day, I have been wearing them more than ever with my move to a colder climate, so I was pumped when Gustin offered to send over their Vintage Heavyweight Sweatshirt in Navy. Especially since I have only two nice sweatshirts on hand.

I’ve been wearing this and living in it for a good while now, and it’s fantastic.

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Note: this item was provided for review.

When I was offered this jacket to review, I thought it would be a pretty neat looking jacket, but maybe not the most versatile. However, shortly after this jacket arrived, Fall with spurts of Winter hit the Boulder area. And the Rampart Jacket quickly became my “easy” go to for covering a hugely variable ‘feels like’ in temps here.

This jacket is far more versatile and easy to wear than I thought, and is fantastic.

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When I think of pocket knives, there’s two iconic blades which pop into my head: a Swiss Army Knife, and a Buck 110. Those are also the first two knives I used growing up, getting my first Swiss Army knife at the ripe old age of five. And handling the Buck 110 not too long after that.

I’ve had a Buck 110 for 7 years now, an item of my grandfather’s I inherited. It’s Damascus steel with a horn handle scale and nickel bolsters. I never use it, I treasure it too much. I’ve bought variants of the 110 since then, the Slim and others to try out more modern takes on the classic. They are all not that great, and not really a Buck 110.

Then, Buck added magnacut steel to the custom shop for the 110, and I bought myself a 110 of my own. It’s amazing, overbearing, and well worth it.

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Note: these items were sent for review.

A while back, my wife gifted me one of the first iterations of Leader Studio’s camo mouse pads. I loved the aesthetics of it, and it’s always found a home in random areas of my office. So when Leander Studio asked for a quick video chat, I was pumped to talk with the brand. On that chat we talked about how they were wanting to help craft work spaces which feel inviting, where people want to work and be there. This thinking and philosophy immediately clicked with me.

They sent me over a sampling of items to review, I took time to rearrange my entire desk. A new desk pad, mouse pad, and valet tray all arrived. They also sent over two of their leather pouches. They told me “no rush” and so I’ve been not rushing anything.

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We are heading towards the peak of AI startups and development (though far from close to the peak). We are many months removed from Earnings Call proclamations executives made to stake their claim in the AI game, and to let shareholders know that they (at the very least) know about Generative AI and those executives making the ask ‘please help improve our stock price because we not proved to you we know about AI.’

Perhaps I missed it, but I’ve yet to see Earnings Call proclamations touting the mass efficiencies gained, or how profits have been generated directly, from these AI initiatives (excluding, of course, the biggest tech companies who are selling these services/tools to other big companies at profit).

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