An Awesome Belt by Gustin

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classic beltI remember Gustin from their Kickstarter days and boy have they taken off! Who would have thought crowd-sourced / funded clothing would be this awesome?! And to have it delivered to you wholesale??? I'm at a loss. With an emphasis on fit, fabric and finish... I can't stop admiring such a great company. They have yet another 'Classic Belt' round up for funding. Ever wonder how belt was crafted? If you need a belt, want a new one or want to simply own something of magnificence, support this bad ass accessory! If you're in doubts about buying this amazing classic belt from Gustin, check out the video below!

Only if the artist who handcrafted my belt could sign it. Hmmm.... guys?

I'm not going to mass email you guys but check out the referral email below! Get $20 off your first order. Hey!

Have you checked out Gustin yet? They are the first fully crowdsourced premium menswear company. That means you get to decide what they produce and get it all at true wholesale prices!

If you create an account using my referral link you get $20 off your first purchase!

https://www.weargustin.com/invite_from/1356

Thanks!

I already own two of their amazing pairs of jeans. I'll be slowly replacing all my other pairs shortly. Maybe a road trip in the books!

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite Version 2

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Looks like Amazon's own leak led to the early unveiling of the next generation Paperwhite.  Being dubbed as version 2, Amazon's best e-reader & in my opinion, the best way to consume ebooks is out for preorder today!  Click on the picture or use my link below to get yours shipped on or by September 30th! Here's the quick run down:

  • higher contrast
  • next generation built-in light
  • 25% faster processor
  • 19% tighter touch grid enhancing accuracy

Is it worth the upgrade?  I'll be honest that these features alone won't cause me to sell my version 1 on craigslist just yet but if the light is indeed that much better, you can count on it!

paperwhitev2

Amazon Paperwhite (next gen)

Watermarking

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I haven't solved my post processing / editing workflow problem yet and keep on delaying.  I've come up with reasons such as, I don't have my new MacBook Pro Retina Display w/ Haswell yet or I don't have my new iMac setup or my home cloud server isn't setup the way I want it, but nonetheless, I'm falling way behind.  Yesterday when I posted a couple of images, I thought about watermarking.  I know that you can use either Adobe's Lightroom or Apple's Aperture photo editing software, but because I don't have a computer to install these applications on (another excuse), I was left to find something minimal.  And I'm glad that I did. I stumbled up Photobulk by Eltima Software.  They are having a 20% off sale right now on the Mac App Store or you can download a free demo from their website.  Takes seconds and the results were as expected.  The biggest draw to me was that it was drag and drop.  You can even set multiple presets and bulk edit your pictures.  At the sale price of $7.99, it's a no brainer.  And no, I was not paid to post this article.

http://youtu.be/uZnZnyo8qbg

Fine Coffee Cheaper than Beer or Soda

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LATaco's interview with Tony Konecny from Tonx.org. I've now had one month worth of Tonx coffee and am a huge supporter and big fan! Try it for free if you don't believe me! http://instagram.com/p/XnBW0pFEgz/

I’d say the biggest misconception about coffee is that it’s expensive. It can feel expensive when you’re standing in a slow line in front of some prohibition-era cosplaying barista and shelling out 5 bucks for a cup – but even with that kind of a price premium, it is still almost a bargain.

For comparison, a pint of craft microbrew at a typical bar will set you back more than a great cappuccino or brewed coffee, even though the margins on that beer are much better and it requires less skill to pull a tap than to pull a decent espresso. But craft beer doesn’t suffer from quite the same perception of being an upscale, pricey luxury and it dodged a lot of unnecessary pretense as it became more mainstream.

When you make your own coffee at home, even the finest coffees become pretty cheap. We are buying and roasting some of the finest coffees available and our per-cup cost for our customers is barely 80 cents a pop. Much cheaper than most sodas, red bull, gas station coffee – and a hell of a lot cheaper than those popular k-cups and nespresso pods.

And we spend a lot of time fighting the misconception that you have to be a trained barista with expensive gear to make a good cup. Not remotely true. It is all about starting with really great, fresh roasted beans.

The Summer Ant Problem

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On Monday, I made a trip to H-Mart in search for some Cronuts.  When I arrived, they had sold out and apparently are selling out within an hour of baking.  So instead, I bought a large assortment of pastries from Paris Baguette Cafe and looked forward to a delightful tasting with my wife when she got home from work.  After I put our daughter to bed, I came back downstairs to see that the ants already started the party.  To date, the ants have infested our family room dining table treats and are up 2-0.  I was livid and our for revenge!  The kicker is that I didn't even sample anything from the box as I anticipated a fun dinner. I looked up "ant killer" on Amazon and found Terro.  With just under 600 reviews and 4.5 stars on average, I was ready to buy but I needed something now.  We are subscribers to Amazon Prime, and love it, but it's was still two days away.  I went to the local grocery store and bought some Raid Ant traps.  The reviews on Amazon are sub par and in actuality pretty poor.  I was on a full on war so I ended up buying both.

The Raid solution cost me $8 while the Terro came in under $7.  I ordered the Terro on Amazon on Tuesday and it came next day!!!  Unbelievable service and I am truly impressed more and more by Amazon.  If I would have known, I might have forgone the extra money I spend on the useless Raid trap.

Within seconds, and I mean maybe 10 seconds, the ants were all over the Terro package.  The response was tremendous!  Continually throughout the day, it kept on attracting everybody while the Raid was the lonely child left in the cafeteria.  I'm giving it 5 stars!  Solid five stars!

Terrovsraid

An E-Reader That I Use

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I get a lot of questions on what tablet I use / prefer (iPad Mini) and if I still carry an e-reader when I travel.  I do and I'll tell you why. To put it simply, my daughter has taken over my Mini.  Some other quick thoughts are that the Kindle Paperwhite is lighter than the Mini 95 grams, the front light is amazing, the resolution is crisp, and lets not forget about the amazing ecosystem than Amazon has established.

I've never enjoyed reading on the iPad unless it's a news article or a magazine through Flipboard.  I also end up getting distracted by all the applications that are on the iOS ecosystem.  When I want to read a book and dive into it, I'm still in enamored by my Kindle.  In fact, my wife prefers it too!

A Tumbler to Rule Them All

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If you travel as much as I do, or find yourself commuting for long periods of time, hang on to your Contigo Travel Mug!  As long as you don't forget yours in the plane, you'll be happy with the Contigo 20oz Travel Mug a.k.a. Best Coffee Tumbler EVER.  It's a pure winner.  It's 100% leak proof and the kicker stats are that the vacuum insulated double wall stainless steel keeps beverages hot for 6 hours and cold for 18 hours! It kept my coffee scalding hot for so long that I had to keep the lid open for over 30 minutes just so I could sip the darn thing!  I highly recommend the 20oz version as it can hold a full can of soda with ice or a vent coffee.  If you're wondering how it tests for cold beverages, I've tested it through and through and was able to reuse the ice for multiple can refills of Mug Root Beer for a couple of hours as it seemed to never melt.

contigo20oz.jpg
contigo20oz.jpg

Ideally, it's a tremendous coffee cup or coffee tumbler.  Just hit up your local drip and filler up!  In case you're wondering, I'm referring to Bird Rock Coffee Roasters!

Update: In 2013, I went through two Contigo Coffee Tumblers and one Zojirushi.  I left them all in airplanes and have only gotten one back to yet leave it in another aircraft.  I just bought another one today, February 1, 2014 and chose to go with Contigo as I wanted to actually be able to drink out of the tumbler within the first hour. The Zojirushi on the other hand, keeps your beverage scalding hot for over 2 hours so it's best for transporting and only enjoying a poured cup of coffee only in my opinion.

SD Memory Cards for my Olympus OM-D 5E

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If there is one memory card to get, it's the SanDisk Extreme 16GB 45MB/s SDHC Class 10 card.  It's touted on many other blogs out there and I love my cards.  Personally, I opted for two 32GB cards but I'm leaning towards picking up another pair of 16s due to the speed and time it takes to dump them onto my networked drive.  Right now, both the 16GB and 32GB are around $1.00 a GB on Amazon.  Check them out and always remember to use my links!  Thanks!

My Re-Ply Chair

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My Re-Ply chair has arrived and it's newest and youngest fan is my daughter Norah Renée! It's an awesome chair and quite the conversation starter too. Watch the Kickstarter video by it's creator Dan Goldstein. http://instagram.com/p/aMPwKuu4Sh/ http://instagram.com/p/aMO8Hfu4RB/

The Re-Ply Chair from The Re-Ply Chair on Vimeo.

Love it. - Herman Miller

It's No Sunday Phone

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We love new phones but hide them in cases. We love nice cars but some of us are so infatuated with them that we only drive them to church (or on special occasions). Both are utilities that are made to be used and I could not agree more.

The iPhone, however, prefers not to play by these rules. Though exquisite in design, it was not born as art to be put on display. It belongs in our pockets. It is a tool. A utility. A gadget of gadgets.

The iPhone is here to work.

via Shawn Blanc

The Magazine

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Marco Arment, from Instapaper & tumblr fame, has released a new subscription-based app on iOS simply called,"The Magazine". It's a different approach on technology related articles and their delivery.  I'm already looking forward to the next issue after finishing #1.  I want this to succeed and hopefully I can be insightful enough to be included some day!

Instead of the traditional labor-intensive magazine layout and expensive multimedia production, The Magazine’s article format is similar to Instapaper’s: one clean, adjustable, reader-friendly template with HTML, occasional images, and some small conveniences. It loads quickly, integrates well with sharing and system conventions (including text selection and VoiceOver), occupies minimal storage space, and shows the utmost respect for your time and attention.

The Magazine is leaving behind a lot of what magazines “need”. And many magazines really do need them. But I don’t think this does.

All of this is a bit crazy, and it’s not guaranteed to succeed. But I bet it will.

Looks like my unsubscribed The Daily app is going to have some companionship on my Newsstand.

Kindle Paperwhite is...

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When Amazon first debuted the new Kindle Paperwhite, I wasn't so sure about the name. Silly I know, but at $119, there's not too much to complain about except for the lack of audio out for text to speech and the reduced size of available memory (4GB down to 2GB). Nonetheless, even Barnes and Nobles had to lower the price of their lighted black and white e-reader. It's just that good. Not to mention the amazing ecosystem especially their Lending Llibrary available to those that subscribe to Amazon Prime.

When it comes down to it, Amazon at least has the naming scheme down; Kindle Paperwhite vs. Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight. TKO Amazon!

Here are a couple of grabs from reviews posted throughout the blog circuit.

It's the stealth bomber version of the Kindle you know. - Gizmodo

I found myself turning on the light regularly, at various levels of brightness, not just at night. It just makes the Kindle that much more usable and convenient: On a dim subway or in a badly lit room, you can read comfortably. - GigaOM

Joshua Topolsky posted a thorough review on The Verge. Here are a few quotes I came away with.

The device is incredibly comfortable in hand.

It may be the most comfortable e-reader I've ever used.

In my opinion, it's one of the best E Ink displays on the market, and might possibly be the best thanks to that new lighting.

And here's CNN on the Paperwhite:

Kindle Paperwhite is king of e-readers

The one thing I won't be doing on it though is reading comic books. I'm eagerly waiting for mine being delivered this morning and will have an unboxing and review of my own later this week!