Recent Articles

My wife recently picked up a Q2, and within a few minutes of holding it, I was sure I needed a Q2. And then I saw the images it was producing, and I had to have one.

Side note: my wife’s much better review of her Q2 will hopefully come some time this year. The photos she is making with it are astounding.

But instead of a Q2, I snagged a barely used Q2 Monochrom and took it with me to the beautifully colorful Italian coast. This is one of the best cameras I’ve ever used, and absolutely the most fun I have had with a camera. And it can’t even take a color photograph.

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This is the fourth, and final, installment of my ‘State of XYZ Collection’ posts. In this one, we are covering my watches, and while not the quantity hasn’t changed much, there have been two big things to cover.

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It’s no secret that I think Reminders.app from Apple, and Notes from Apple are two of the most underrated productivity tools out there. I suspect people don’t use and talk about these more, because they lack the dopamine hit you get with purchasing a new thing to get better. It’s kind of like buying a gym membership to go walk on an indoor track, rather than walking around your neighborhood. Both accomplish the same thing, but with the gym you get to proof that you spent money to think about fitness, while making your fitness routine more cumbersome to actually do.

Anyways, Reminders fucking rocks.

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For the third installment of ‘State of XYZ Collection’, let’s dive into flashlights. This collection has been in a huge state of change over 2023, so I am constraining it to lights I carry in my pocket only. The big changes are centered around what I want out of a light, and trying for easier to carry lights. Here we go:

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I always write ‘The Best’ lists at the end of the year, but I often note that the best items are not necessarily my favorite items. Sometimes a thing is my favorite for sentimental reasons, or because my use case is a little more niche than the categories I’ve defined on the best list.

So, I thought it would be fun to take a look five of my current favorite items, and why they are my favorites.

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The second installment of my ‘State of XYZ Collection’ brings us to knives. Which is possibly the most boring of these, as I basically use/own very few knives. I went from having piles around the house, to five. And of those five, I use two most days. I’m not counting anything stashed away in emergency bags, but rather a knife I am likely to grab and use for a task. Here they are:

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This is one of those items, where I would have never purchased it if two things didn’t happen: the first is getting to see other items from ‘Observer Collection’ in person; the second was an upcoming trip where I knew I would need to handle more cash and coins. Coins are a huge pain for me day to day with the wallets I already own.

Because, when I am at home in Texas, I have my wallet setup down: drivers license, two cards, a $20 bill, and two $5 bills. Done. This all fits neatly in my tiny wallet, but for travel — even domestically or in state — this quickly blows apart.

Which is where Observer Collection’s Whisky comes into play. This is probably the best wallet for travel (or coin needs) I have ever used.

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I’ve been getting a lot of questions around what gear I actually have/use right now. I thought it would be neat to check in, so let’s start with bags. I am constraining this to only the bags I would put in my EDC rotation, and I am excluding anything I am still reviewing. Here’s the list, and a few comments on each:

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Traveling internationally as a family has a lot of small pitfalls. Being the organizational and bag nerd I am, I take on the responsibility of covering all the little bases. One of those bases involves cash, passports, and vaccination cards.

All three of those are something that you probably, likely, need when you travel internationally. And all three suck if you lose them or do not have ready access to them. So, I carry those items for the family when we travel, and I search for new things to carry them in.

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I recently wrote about the Laulima Malihini Slim I picked up and how amazing it is. The Ion Slim is from another line utilizing the same internals with a different body design. I picked this up in tumbled Aluminum, and it might be the best all-around light I have used.

I’ll tell you why.

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