Simple Living

I've owned quite a few baseball caps over the years from fitted, snap backs, mesh truckers and so on.  And generally, I wear a hat either to protect myself from the elements or when I'm lazy and didn't fix my hair. Minimal Design/Colors In keeping with the minimalist theme, I've preferred either single color black or white hats, with as few designs or logos.  It's quite easy to find a decent baseball cap for about $10 at various discount retailers and even less online from Amazon. Mesh Caps for the Breeze For hot weather or when I anticipate sweating, mesh trucker hats offer the most utility.  Otherwise, I favor the classic snap back and try to get them slight oversize. Logo Caps Back in the day, I favored logo caps from a favorite sports team or some name brand.  My favorite was my NY Yankees and another was a simple white Adidas logo snap back. Simple is Best By no means do I consider myself an expert and continue to learn and discover new

I've always been curious about Black Velvet and surprisingly, never tried it until now.  I knew it would be cheap liquor as I can always find for under $10 and usually on the bottom shelf of any grocery store.  So along with my usual Bourbon fix (Wild Turkey 101), picked it up. At first, I tried it with Coca Cola and couldn't taste anything, but coke.  And it was too sweet for my taste so I tried it again on the rocks and was surprised at how smooth it was, indeed as smooth as velvet.  There are some sweet notes in the flavor profile and barely any hint of alcohol burn, but something about it just doesn't rest easy with me. It's smooth...that's about it. If anything, Black Velvet is very smooth and easy to drink, even more so on the rocks.  It rests somewhere below the sweetness of a Jim Beam and below the heavy flavoring of Jack Daniels is where I would put it, however the lack of an alcoholic burn is disturbing, especially for an 80 proof whisky. For

I love my Rolex Explorer 114270.  Out of all my watches, all of my material possessions, the Rolex stands out as my most prized.  There is just something about the Explorer in its austere simplicity that makes it stand out as one of the best examples of an automatic watch. Someday, I'll probably simplify to just the Rolex as my main watch, along with a few quartz and G-Shocks for everything else.  The Explorer is very much likely my candidate for... if I could only own one watch...it would be this Rolex.  

There are many models of G-Shocks and there are even many more color and design combinations for each and every model.  There are probably a 1,000 different variations in design for just the humble 5600 series. The 5600 for me carries the heritage of the first G-Shock the 5000 and continue it on to current times.  It's lightweight, unobtrusive and packed with all the basic features that you would want in a G-Shock.  While I would prefer the light button to be in front like a 6900 or 9000 series, I've grown to accept the button placement on the 5600. Something about the square face and shape just gets me and I guess reminds me of my Apple Watch.  I've traveled the world with the 5600 and have found it more than adequate for my needs.  You can usually pick them up for a bargain of about $50-80 depending where you look. Specs 12/24 Time World Time Tide Graph Moonphase 200 Meter water resistance Stopwatch Countdown Timer Alarm CR2025 battery (lasts 7 years...my

As I own or have owned both watches, I wanted to take some time to compare and contrast between the two.  The INOX fills a niche for a mid-tier rugged non-diver quartz watches (~$200) and would be more comparable to the Casio Promaster Tough or numerous Seiko watches, but near the bottom the pricing category is the humble, yet respectable ~$50 Casio Duro MDV-106. Specs Casio MDV-106 200 meter water resistance 44 mm case width 22 mm band width Quartz Movement (Casio 2784 / Miyota 2115) INOX 200 meter water resistance 43mm case width 21 mm band width Quartz Movement (Ronda 715) INOX vs Duro Both are approximately the same size at around 43mm case size, with the Duro coming in at shorter 12mm case height and slightly wider 22mm band width.  They enjoy screw-down crowns and 200 meter water resistance.  The Duro also has a rotating diver bezel so while it wouldn't make sense to compare a diver vs non-diver, I felt the Duro's price point justifies having it cha

Had to try and it took the INOX for a swim.  It worked as expected and I'm quite pleased as I wanted a good steel quartz watch that would be safe around the pool and beach.  It's a bit more my style than a G-Shock.

A few years back, I went through a Swiss Army multi tool phase and amassed a small collection of about a dozen pieces.  My favorite has been the 91mm Victorinox Spartan and I own multiple copies along with the smaller Classic.  The Spartan is the quintessential Swiss Army knife and is based on the 1890s officer knife.  The 1890s officer knife is an offshoot of the Model 1890 soldiers knife that started it all and was the actual knife used by the Swiss Army. In the past I used to rotate through my various Spartan's and sometimes mixed it up with a 111mm OHT (one hand) Trekker with its awesome liner lock.  The Spartan proved more useful with the corkscrew and lightweight size.  I also own a large Swiss Champ and a Camper, which is basically a Spartan with an added layer holding a saw. In my humble opinion the Spartan is close to perfect Swiss Army knife maintaining the brands DNA from the 1890s and providing all the basic tools and implements in a compact size and form factor.  A

Almost like clockwork, I purchase a new watch every year around this time.  And with last year's procurement of the Armani AR585, I have developed a liking for watches in the 43 mm range and decided to get the Victorinox INOX Watch in OD olive green. I've actually been wanting the INOX for several years, but shied away from it as I thought 43 mm was too big and at the time sold my Armani AR 585, but how time makes one change your mind and now I see a place for larger watches to complement my existing watches in the 38 and 41 mm size brackets.  It also has 200 meter water resistance with screw down crown, so something I've always wanted for a watch besides a G-Shock to go swimming with. I also like the hexagonal bezel design.  It has some resemblance to a AP Royal Oak or PP Nautilus, but differs quite a bit where you wouldn't consider the INOX a cheap knock off, nor a homage design. It's certainly a bit bold and blunt in size and design, but less so than

Wow.  I've been spoiled by Linux and didn't really pay much attention to the update system for Windows and am totally floored at how problematic and time consuming its become.  I'm on my 4th day trying to get Windows 10 updated to Build 1909... The HP i7 restore software is on an older 1511 Build and I was able to get it updated to 1809 after several hours then total havoc trying for 3 days to get it to update to 1909.  Restarting, running various command prompt options, and running various utilities, nothing...just frustration. I finally decided to reset back to a previous build and it sent me all the way back to 1511 then I started over and got it to 1809 and now waiting for it to update to 1909; crossing fingers. Update 4/23/2020 -- It's done Yes!  The updates finally completed and I'm 100% up-to-date.  This ordeal was unnecessary and ridiculous.

I've owned numerous laptops over the years and have settled on a small fleet of three (3) machines: Window Box - Win10 - HP i7-6700HQ (2016) Linux Box - Lubuntu - HP i3-4010u (2014) Spare - Lubuntu - Compaq C700 C2Duo-T5250 (2007?) i3-4010u // an awesome processor Intel did good with the release of this 4th generation processor.  While the i3 is meant to be an entry-level and basic CPU, it works perfectly for Linux and most of my computing needs (excluding gaming). The best part it draws very little power and was one of the main reasons I dumped most of my older laptops that ran Core 2 Duo's and older.  I'm still impressed at how many people still hang onto their 4th gen i3 and they sell for a decent price on eBay (my HP i3 model goes for about $200!) i7-6700HQ // great, but needs a GPU and SSD The i7 is awesome, but if you are going to buy one you should get it paired with an SSD and GPU.  In hindsight, I had this as options, but opted for the lower price confi

I've been stuck at home for past few weeks and got back into online gaming and started playing Caravan Stories first on the PS4 and then switched to the Japanese version for the PC. I prefer the PC version as I can use the keyboard and mouse, but had to translate the menus and commands by comparing it with the PS4 version.  For all intents and purposes, the two versions are the same; with exception being the Japanese PC version gives you better bonuses and stuff (like Sophia with 5 star gear vs. PS4 only offering 4 star). Basic Walkthrough/Guide Whichever version you pick, the game play is roughly the same and you have five (5) basic goals: Finish the four (4) starter races.  Finish the stories and reincarnate for the four (4) starter races: Human, Elf, Dwarf and Orc.  After your first reincarnation, this opens up a lot more options and places to visit in the game. Human Story first.  Start with the Human story first as you get the powerful S-Class Sophia and she will be ab

I'm upgrading my HP i7-6700HQ model 15-AB292NR (purchased 2016) with a new SSD (solid state drive), a 1TB Crucial BX500 3D NAND SATA 2.5 drive purchased for $100 from Amazon. Specs of the HP 15t Model 15-Ab292NR Processor - Intel i7-6700HQ Ram - 8 GB HDD - 1 TB GPU - Intel Graphics 530 15.6" IPS Screen DVD Writer 802.11AC OS - Windows 10 Home Battery Model - ki04 (KI04)  HQ for H = High Quality and Q = Quad-Core.  It's a step below the unlocked K version, but otherwise is fairly decent. Why Upgrade the i7? The HP i7 has been my main Window OS machine as I still need it for certain functions and recently I've been using it daily as I'm stuck at home. Normally, I spend most of my time on my Linux laptop (HP i3-4010u) that has always been faster than even an i7 running Win10; crazy how that works!  But being that I need to spend more time on Win10, It'll boost the speed by switching to an SSD. Does SSD improve speed?  No, but it reduces load ti