The Brooks Review

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The Hype: Yoshida & Co’s Porter BagsAugust 26, 2025
G-SHOCK DW-H5600 After 7 MonthsJuly 31, 2025
Casio Duro MDV-106 Re-ReviewDecember 15, 2022

Recent Articles

  • Tudor Black Bay GMT

    This is the most perfect watch I have ever found, and you really need one.

    I know when this started — it started with my grandfather passing away. Shortly after his passing my grandmother handed me his watch, and told me she wanted me to have it. A Rolex Datejust, not particularly old having a 2007 model year, but it was the only watch I had ever seen my grandfather wear (something my dad confirmed). From the day my grandfather got that watch, and onward, it was always on his wrist. And for the next year and a half I basically never took it off either.

    But that watch is not the style I would pick, and truth be told at the time I really didn’t know what my style was or is. So I started trying to find a watch, because that Rolex was what caused me to ditch the Apple Watch and never look back. I started with a classic Steinhart and have been on a rampage ever since then.

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  • Member Journal — 1/20/2020

    That thing where I manage to talk about bags, pens, and my toilet paper and cat litter supply all in one article.

    This week: paper and pen, keyboards stress me out, someone thinks Apple is evil, my toilet paper supply, overrated work perks, toilet seats, and then we dive into the topic of bags.

    You must be a member to read the rest of this article.

  • Member Journal — 1/13/20

    What the heck is an app that is user hostile.

    This week: why apps like Excel fail to understand iPadOS, the $20 million test, why OmniFocus uses Stockholm’s Syndrome to keep users, and Black PR — it’s a thing.

    You must be a member to read the rest of this article.

  • Member Journal — 1/6/2020

    I got a new bag, and Seattle is super cold and dark so that was something.

    New year, short post. I’ll be back to full length next week, but for this week: News+ subscription, miscellany to kick of the year, bag talk, and the finally tally on the poll.

    You must be a member to read the rest of this article.

  • The Smartphone Isn’t Evil, Chill

    Let’s just be honest about the fact that we are addicted to escape, and phones offer a convenient way of escaping.

    I saw an article recently, which shared a ‘new tip’ for dealing with distraction in the digital age. The tip: keep your phone near the entrance/exit to your domicile — and if you need to use your phone walk to it and stay in that area while you use it. This, they say, is a great way to keep yourself from being distracted.

    It’s also incredibly stupid. There seems to be this idea that tech itself is addicting and that many are handcuffed to tech by way of their phone. And so often the advice, like that advice above, is along the lines of eschewing tech during some part of your life. It’s bad advice, it’s avoiding the hard questions and finding a scapegoat.

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  • Member Journal — 12/30/19

    What if Apple allowed pen designers to design the Pencil?

    Short one this week: a poll, a pen thought, and Shortcut Automation fails me.

    You must be a member to read the rest of this article.

  • Member Journal — 12/23/19

    A short journal for this week.

    This week: very brief thoughts for another two iPad trick, a link to smart speaker privacy, and a note about watch accuracy. Back to full scheduling on 1/6/19.

    You must be a member to read the rest of this article.

  • Member Journal — 12/16/19

    No, really, someone broke a GORUCK bag by using it normally.

    This week: a trick for managing two iPads, update on my news diet, my weekly watch obsession, that thing about wearing my watch on my right wrist, perfect watch collections, holiday travels, some great videos, and someone broke a GORUCK bag.

    ## Trick For Managing Things Between Work and Personal iPads

    I have long used a different Apple IDs for buying stuff, and for iCloud. This goes back to 2004, because something weird got put in place for me back then (I think I started using one Apple ID in iTunes to buy music, and then later signed up for .Mac/MobileMe/iCloud and got a new Apple ID for that, and you can’t merge those). Anyways, I use two IDs, but there’s an advantage to that. Because the purchasing App Store ID I can use for my App Store ID on my work devices while not exposing my personal iCloud account to those devices as well.

    You must be a member to read the rest of this article.

  • Member Journal — 12/9/19

    I found a question that even the internet doesn’t have an answer to.

    This week: some follow up to my iPad guide, and to my watch guide, lefties and watches, my news intake reduction, and the lies of morning routines.

    ## iPad Guide Follow Up

    Two errors, a month of writing. I had two typos in the article, which I have fixed, but I do want to point out that I worked on that post everyday for a month and still two slipped by. Dang, that’s annoying.

    It seems for most people the post resonated, but some wondered why it wasn’t more of a getting started guide. That’s a good idea, but I think that’s ultimately a lot of what I have written in these member only posts about going all in on iPad Pro.

    You must be a member to read the rest of this article.

  • The Watch Guide

    Here’s how to buy watches.

    My first memory of lusting after a watch was in 4th grade and it was over a G-SHOCK my friend had. I wanted that watch. Over the years my obsession for watches has not subsided, and I have owned many watches. Over the past two years I have really focused in on what it means to me to own the perfect watch(es). Here’s my advice for anyone starting out, or wanting to buy a watch but feeling overwhelmed by the amount of options out there.

    Scroll to near the end to get yourself the listing of my recommendations, but you really should read my reasoning behind it all…

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  • Member Journal — 12/2/19

    That thing where the Twitter preview is going to be a very confusing picture of my iPad Pro.

    This week: iPads in portrait, Ulysses Sheet love, WiFi 6, month of writing, DuckDuckGo, and how I am tackling news heading into the end of the year.

    *Yesterday I published my article about switching to iPad Pro. This is the article I spent all of November working on each day, I quite like it.*

    You must be a member to read the rest of this article.

  • Why You Should Ditch Your Laptop For iPad Pro

    The how and why of switching to iPad full time.

    How do ‘we’ best integrate computers into our daily lives? Computers are complex and often overkill for most of what we do, and yet feel absolutely essential for modern life whether work or personal. So if you want to simplify, you have single purpose computing devices, like a calculator, good at a smaller subset of the tasks, but good at only those tasks. So where do you go if you find that level of simplifying to be absurd?

    iPad Pro sits in what feels like no-mans land. It is not as good as a laptop in many ways, nor is it as good as a single purpose device at one specific task. But then there is the fact that (in 2015) I, along with many other people over the last few years, decided to walk away from traditional computers and embraced iPad Pro as a primary computer. I wasn’t sure how successful this would be, but I have never looked back. (Think of it like how you could go away for a weekend with just one pair of pants, but could you actually take that leap of faith and only pack one pair?)

    The iPad Pro has not only been a success with replacing a laptop, but it’s proven a better tool than a laptop.

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  • Holiday Affiliate Cash Guide

    Gotta make that money.

    For a while now, I have been putting together my own holiday gift guides. Each year I don’t hide the fact that this is a great way for this site to make a little extra money. This year is no different, but the list is much different this year.

    Here’s 2018’s.

    So, if you are wondering what may be good buys, wonder no more.

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  • GORUCK Black Friday Sale

    Great sale on the best bags you can get, few stand outs: Black GR1, $265 Black GR2s, $295 Simple Pants, $115 Tough Hoodie, $85 I own all of those, actually 4 GR1s, and 2 GR2s, 2 Simple Pants, and just one of the hoodies. I use them all a ton, highly recommend them all. If…

    Great sale on the best bags you can get, few stand outs:

    I own all of those, actually 4 GR1s, and 2 GR2s, 2 Simple Pants, and just one of the hoodies. I use them all a ton, highly recommend them all. If you don’t snag them now, your next chance to get them at these prices isn’t until July (usually).

  • Member Journal — 11/25/19

    That thing where you want to use another display with your iPad but most software has been made the cheap and fast way, so it sucks.

    How is it almost the end of a year already… Anyways, this week: external displays with iPad Pros, naked iPad, standing desks at work, Keychron, daily writing, and watch talk.

    You must be a member to read the rest of this article.

  • The Keychron K2

    A really good option with bad switches choices.

    I have wanted a great Bluetooth mechanical keyboard for a very long time, and yet it has been very hard to find a good one. But Keychron, the K2 especially, has gotten a lot of good press, so I figured I would give it a go, and see if there is finally a good option out there.

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  • Member Journal — 11/18/19

    That thing where you talk about using devices without cases, waking up early is hard, and then do a hard turn to talk about Silicon Valley.

    This week: naked iPad Pro, new iPad stand, my alarms, waking up early, out of touch experts, and evil Silicon Valley.

    You must be a member to read the rest of this article.

  • State of My Everyday Carry Collection

    Here’s what I keep in my pockets.

    I’ve spent a long time now optimizing and finding the most ideal items for me to carry everyday. There’s a huge community around this topic, but no one seems to cover two things I faced:

    1. My life is always changes, and thus so are my needs.
    2. I didn’t want an abundance of crap in my house.

    To that end I have tried to be overly realistic about what I actually need and to build out my kit around that. Here’s what I have settled on:


    I’ll go through every item in there in a moment, and why, but first: the case is the Cache EDC Valet from Drop.com since you were probably wondering and I highly recommend it.

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  • Member Journal — 11/11/19

    How to get a job from me, and just how to get a job in general. Some other stuff too.

    This week: four day work weeks; advice on interviewing, hiring, and job seeking; Instagram; AirPods Pro; Parenting; obligatory watch talk.

    You must be a member to read the rest of this article.

  • Fall Giveaway

    Come, get some of my stuff.

    I need to clear out a bunch of stuff from my home, and what better way than by giving it all away? There’s two lots I am going to be giving away, a non-member and member. Members are eligible for both, but must be an active member at time of drawing to be entered into the member drawing. All prizes are used, but working, they are items reviewed on this site. Shipping cost for all is covered for US addresses only. Drawing is Friday, November 15th, 2019 at 6am Central Time.

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