Category Archives: review

Good Stuff For Guys

ForValentines Day my wife hit the ball out of the park with a subscription to Bespoke Post. I had never heard of it before but the idea is great. Each month, they offer a collection of great stuff for guys curated around a theme. You always have the option of opting in to the offering or declining and waiting for the next. If you opt in, they will send it to you.

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The most recent offering was the “Weekender II”, which included the great bag above and a certificate worth $250.00 to Jetsetter, a travel concierge service. But, if that was not your style you could have opted to wait for the next one. Past offerings have been themed around coffee, wine, socks, shoe care, and more. I opted into the Weekender and am anxiously waiting to see what they offer next.

huckleberry

Another site I have been a member of for a while and deserves equal mention is Huckleberry which offers weekly, limited-time, discount offers on select cool men’s brands. It can be an interesting mix of stuff but always great. Current sales include Wolverine 1883 Shoes, Axis Maps, Sweetwood Jerkey, and Defy Bags. But, you have to be a member to view and order the deals. There has yet to be a week where there is not one thing I have been interested in. Highly recommended. They have a pretty good blog too.

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Finally, I have been a long time fan of minimal wallets (and carrying as little in my pockets as possible). Therefore, I was honored to be featured on the new site, Minimal Wallet and asked to write a couple of paragraphs about what I use and why I like it. The site chronicles many fine wallet offerings as well so if you are in the market, it is well worth checking out.

Lessons From Disney

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In addition to Beatrix, this is my first time at Disney World too. Bethany came when she was Beatrix’s age but has not been back since. Therefore, I had no idea what made it so special. I was completely laid back about the whole trip. I knew it would be magical for Beatrix but, then again, anything with Princesses is all she needs to be on board. But, then, as we drove down the highway heading to the Magic Kingdom and came up over the hill to see the gate to Disney right in front of us, Bethany and I lost all semblance of parental cool. The whole car became giddy as we oohed and aahed at every new detail…

And it did not stop for the rest of the day.

Our first day here filled me with observations, thoughts, and lessons learned. Many of which I have yet to quantify and I’m sure there will be even more to come. Here are just a few…

  • Plan the work then work the plan. — Everything at Disney is perfectly choreographed and orchestrated. Including you. They are just so expert at direction, crowd control, engagement, and organization, you don’t even realize you are simply part of the plan and have been since your car crossed that gate.

  • The price is always fair. — Everything at Disney is a bit expensive but never too expensive. You are never left feeling like the cost is greater than the value. You know you are not getting a bargain but that is because nothing is really “cheap” on either side of the perception. It is always perfectly fair. The food we had at Be Our Guest — the dinning hall in the Beasts Enchanted Castle — is a good example. Such a price for a sandwich seemed a bit high at first glance but then, when I received it, I realized that it was priced fairly. It was pretty decent and not too far out of line of what it would cost in the real world. This was true of everything I saw.

  • Details matter.— The attention to detail everywhere is simply insane. Let me suffice to say that anything you can think of, they have thought of it first and made it perfect. From the approach from the parking lot to the ticket booths to the ferry landing to the approach of the boat as it takes you across the lake — never out of view of the magic castle or stunningly pristine viewing angles of the on-property resorts you now wished you had mortgaged the house to stay in — they have imagined an ideal more perfect than you could have on your own. They are selling your dreams back to you at a markup and even that price is fair.

  • It’s a small world after all. — Every cast member has their home town on their name badge. With a few thousand cast members at any given time, you are likely to have an interaction with someone from someplace you have some association with.

  • Under promise and over deliver. — … And if you, by mistake, over promise, deliver even more. Here’s the thing, no matter how early you get there you will wait in lines for everything. Helpfully, they have the expected wait times at the entrance to all of the attractions. That posted wait time is almost always longer than the actual wait time. Therefore, you are always delighted the line went faster than expected. Setting such an expectation is a classic under promise and sets up the opportunity to deliver more. In the one case where that was not true, the Dumbo Ride, they had a kid’s play area while you waited that delivered as much fun as the ride itself.

  • Be a step above. — Everything at Disney is a step above any other similar experience you have had at any other similar amusement park (similar being a very loose term here because, I can now say with relative certainty, there is no such thing). The employees are more cheerful, friendly, helpful, and nice than anywhere else. I was even impressed that every other guest seemed unfailingly courteous and nice — every accidental bump or slight by a stranger was followed without prompt by an apology and/or rectification. The rides are all better than similar ones at other parks too. All the food I’ve had so far has been a notch above. The list goes on.

  • Everyone knows your name.— Beatrix wore a Belle (Beauty and The Beast) princess dress on day one. Therefore, every single cast member addressed to her as “Princess” or “Your Majesty” and Bethany and I as “King and Queen”. Every single time. They not only never missed it but went out of their way to make her feel like the most special guest of all. They realize that, for a girl of her age, doing anything else would chink the armor of her fantasy and enjoyment. When you know they do this for every single girl in a princess dress, instead of making it seem routine, blows my mind even more. Think about it. They can make each of tens of thousands of girls a day feel like an exclusive honored guest.

  • Cleanliness is next to godliness. — This is the most spotless amusement park I have ever been to. Even late in the day and a few hundred thousand visitors later I would dare you to find a single piece of garbage on the ground. Even the bathrooms all look like you could dine off of the porcelain and smells like a garden.

Suffice it to say that I love it here. There is so much to be learned for sure. And I know I will have more to think and write about. But, most of all, my little girl is being filled with good memories that will last a lifetime and nothing can make me happier than that.

Training Days

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Some, but not all, know that I have been training for this little bit of craziness called the GORUCK Challenge. I’m signed up for the 1am class on March 30th. I actually had trained for the one held here last year but broke two toes during training and had to pull out two weeks before the event. I was really disappointed at the time but went and shadowed and took photographs instead. I’m pretty proud of the fact that most of the photos on the official GORUCK Flickr page for that event are ones I took.

The GRC, as insiders call it, started as a proving exercise for the military grade backpacks (called “Rucks” in the service) the company makes. The company was started by an ex-Special Forces guy and he wanted to make a ruck that would withstand the rigors of combat for his buddies still inside. The Challenge became more and more popular and has basically become a business all of its own. Each one is led by a former member of the special forces (called Cadre) and is meant to simulate some of the conditions and scenarios they faced. I wont go to much into detail here, I urge you to check out the site and watch the videos to get some idea. Let’s just say that it is one of the hardest physical endurance events going.

I actually have stayed in fairly good shape since beginning training for the last one. I was pretty prepared for it before breaking the toes and have managed to maintain my fitness for the most part since then. I’ve especially stepped up my running game. I’ve even run a 5k and 10k race (and have signed up for a half-marathon at the end of April). I had lost about twenty pounds back then and have managed to keep it off. So, I’m starting from a good place.

That said, I had not really kept up with the weight training needed for such an endeavor. I’ve gotten back on top of that in the last couple of weeks. I’m lucky in that my body and metabolism responds very quickly to change. Especially so when that change is designed to provide immediate and steadily improving results.

It just so happened that right before I started getting serious about the weight training again, I came across the excellent article in Everything You Know About Fitness Is a Lie in Mens Journal magazine. This, in turn, led me to the book Starting Strength, Basic Barbell Training. Both of these have been tremendous in outlining the basic, time tested, fundamentals needed for rapid strength improvement. In just a couple of weeks I’ve seen a 50% gain in the amount of weight I can squat, dead lift, and bench press. I could not recommend both of these more highly if you are looking to improve your overall strength.

I had some initial doubts about how ready for the Challenge I was going to be by March and was feeling a bit behind in my preparations. Now, I’m feeling pretty sure that, short of any broken bones, I will be physically prepared to face what ever “good livin'” comes my way. The rest, as the GORUCK folks will tell you, is all mental.