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"uncrate" style of a few things I don't need

A running list of things I don't need "uncrate" style.

Faemina is overly expensive but it sure is nice looking and will make some really good coffee drinks. $5760

Bertazzoni induction range is good looking too. I'd prefer the larger burner at the front left instead of the back but that's a minor issue. $4850

Eiderdown comforter is the opposite of a weighted blanket, the premium is with the high warmth to low weight ratio. The down is collected from nests and is about as environmentally friendly and responsible as can be. $4800

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basic workout and gear

I simplified my workout goals to run 4 miles every day and hope to ramp up to 5 to 6 miles a day at some point. Rest days will generally be Mondays with some ad hoc rest days depending how I feel.

Gear wise, the Nike ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT% are amazing shoes. I used to run in Asics either Nimbulus or Cumulus but these Vaporflys feel way better. They have carbon soles and some nice cushioning so my body doesn't feel wrecked after my runs. It's a noticeable and significant difference.

I'm usually pretty skeptical about heavily marketed gear/features. But I do understand how carbon fiber soles can both absorb the force of my running and spring me forward. Carbon fiber in road bikes definitely absorb choppy roads so it makes sense it would do the same in shoes. Carbon fiber is one of the coolest materials.

The other item that's helping me run and recover quicker is this Hypervolt Plus massage gun. I was skeptical about this too but it works. Recovery is a big deal if I want to actually run every day.

Considering it's just shoes and a massage gun and not like a bike, bike parts/maintenance, swimming membership (for pool access), gym membership, seems like I should be able to save some money too.

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polo shirts

Quick post on polo shirts. Polo shirts are all I wear these days and I've had quite the product journey from Lacoste to American Apparel to Sunspel to random web finds.

My go to polo shirts are the Sebastian style from Orlebar Brown and Adrian/Roth styles from John Smedley. They're both pricey but the quality and the feel are pretty good (moreso for the Smedley polo since it's Sea Island cotton). Orlebar Brown does seem to fade quite a bit over time.

Happy to take other recommendations for polo shirts if you happen to stumble upon this post and have something good for me to try out.

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my cookware recommendations

pots and pans – Mafter Bourgeat

Go with Mafter Bourgeat and get one of their black steel pans (the 11 7/8" one) and get the remainder from their stainless steel collection: the 9-1/2" and 11" fry pans, the 1-3/4 quart and 4 quart sauce pans, the 7-1/2 quart stock pot, and optionally the 4 quart saute pan. Altogether, these should run you about $500-$600.

There's a small detail with these Mafter pots and pans that's not in most cookware. The handles are attached in a way where the rivets don't go through so the interior is clean.

Also:

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MacBook Pro 2016

I love the non-touchbar version of the MacBook Pro. Looking down at a keyboard to find buttons doesn't make sense to me so went with the non-touchbar model. I could also complain about the price and battery life (which you can do every time) but the specs and design are solid. There seems to be quite a few lukewarm reviews out there but that's mostly because people are in need of ad/page views.

The MacBook Pro is still the best laptop in the market by a wide margin from a quality, design, and spec perspective. The Dell XPS laptops and Razer Blade laptops (stealth version) are also ones I'd consider.

Specs:

  • 2.4GHz Intel Core i7
  • 16GB RAM
  • 512GB SSD
  • 2k display, although I'm hooking up to a Dell P2415Q 4k external display
  • weighs 3 lbs. and effectively has a 4 hour battery life (this does need to be way better)
  • USB C and the headphone port are great as the only ports

The sad thing about the MacBook Pro is that it's pretty close to complete as a product (which is what you would expect after 25 years!). You can certainly improve on the internals but this thing can't really get any thinner, lighter, louder, or brighter and no more ports to remove.

Of course a laptop can always get faster but this thing is already pretty fast and the bottleneck is on the connectivity and the server side. The real innovation is happening w/ the iPad and iPhone, still quite a few things that can be done there.

So yet again, this particular MacBook Pro defines laptop because there's really very little left to do to make this an even better product. However, I'm curious to see how Chromebooks continue to evolve (especially versus tablet improvements) since a browser based OS or just a web based experience is what most folks use and need, and a significantly cheaper price point gets the Web out there to more people.