The Story of My Slow Road to a Coffee Habit

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I never drank coffee in college. I was never into hot beverages or coffee specifically. I used to say that even know I didn’t eat very well I didn’t smoke, drink very much, or drink coffee. I’m not sure if it was the flavor or just hot liquid that turned me off to coffee. By the time I was out of college I didn’t mind that I wasn’t drinking it since I knew it could be back for you. I figured I had enough things wrong with my diet that I didn’t need to add anything else to it that was not good.

The history of me and coffee I think started on a flight from New York to Los Angeles while working at Datastream. I got an upgrade to business elite on the Delta flight I was taking and the flight attendant convinced me to try and Irish coffee. It might have been several years after that before I had my next cup.

Starting around my early 30s when I decided to get serious about dating I would have cappuccino here and there after dinner with dessert. I remember one dessert place in Little Italy that I found with friends that was good. I would always get some sort of dessert and a cappuccino. It was nice. That segued into going back to the same place sometimes with a date. That in turn evolved into having a cappuccino here and there after dinner.

It wasn’t until I started working at Thomson Reuters that I started drinking coffee a little more regularly however not all the time. By that time around late 2008 I knew I liked the cappuccino. I would sweeten it up a little and the milk sugar mixed with the coffee was pretty good for me. I wasn’t that into regular drip coffee. That’s why I was intrigued when the coffee machine at the office was in had cappuccino. What I knew at the time but didn’t care was it really wasn’t a true cappuccino. It was espresso roast coffee with a peppered milk and water combination that was sort of a cappuccino. For me a coffee newbie was perfect. At that time didn’t go to the office all the time and work remote for at least part of my week. When I would go to the time square office I would treat myself with the Flavia cappuccino. I remember distinctly the first time I had 2 cups in a row. I was in a long meeting and thought the extra caffeine would help. I was amazed at crazy I felt after the 2nd cup. I didn’t understand how people did that regularly. To this day I rarely have 2 cups in a row.

My coffee habit evolved further when I started dating someone who thought it would be fun to get me to drink more of it. That was her take on the situation. The reality was by simply regularly dating somebody I hadn’t done in a while I had more opportunity to be out and have more coffee. After we stopped eating however I still like the idea of a cup more frequently than I previously had. One of the people I work with at the time had mentioned they had a Flavian machine at their house and that it was pretty decent. I didn’t need anything fancy and its research. I found that could indeed by personal machine for around $100. I decided to go with the Flavia instead of a Kurig because Flavia offered the cappuccino pouches. It was at this point that I started drinking at least one cup a day on most workdays. At the time the Flavia machine was a easy low-cost option for me.

It wasn’t until I met MC in the summer of 2010 that I started learning and getting schooled in what good coffee is. Back then to me good coffee was Starbucks. MC is not a fan of Starbucks. I’m still okay with it however grown to learn that there’s much better options out there if you know where to look. When MC eventually so my apartment she rightfully scorned my Flavia machine and called it hot brown water. Let’s face it looking back she was right. We moved in together or around that time we decided to go and get an Nespresso machine. MC knew I liked cappuccinos and thought if I wanted to have cappuccinos we should do it right. I had been researching machines on my own and when she encouraged me to look for a better one I decided to take the plunge. We opted for an Nespresso machine without the milk frothing option. We bought a separate milk frothing device from Nespresso. I figured if something went wrong with one of the pieces of the multifunction device (IE espresso machine or milk frother) the other half would be useless. I have not been a fan of all-in-one devices in a while. The price was comparable to get the two devices versus the all-in-one. With the milk frothing device and true espresso machine I was able to experience much better cappuccinos at home cheaper than going to the store. The cost is still high per unit however it was cheaper than my other options at the time.

For years I enjoyed that espresso machine. When I was losing weight I would have a skim cappuccino almost as a snack substitute since it’s only 80 cal. I found that when I was losing weight I actually started drinking more coffee. It wasn’t a surprise that I was doing that. It was almost deliberate knowing that it could offset my hunger a little. I was still only having about 2 cups a day.

At some point I was concerned about the total cost of owning the Nespresso machine. Each pod is around $.65-$.80. If I do double shots once or twice a day it adds up. I had researched alternative espresso machines and didn’t want to deal with the expensive costs associated. I stumbled across the old-school European idea of the mocha pot. I picked up a small one on Amazon for about $25. I was able to use the same Lavazza or Illy coffee that MC used in her drink coffee since she always buys espresso roast. The mocha pot coffee was not quite the same as espresso but it was pretty potent and I like it. The problem with the mocha pot is its pain in the butt to clean.

At this point with my espresso machine and new mocha pot we had four different coffee delivery mechanisms in our house. In addition to those two MC has her ceramic filter she uses for making old-school drip coffee with a teakettle. That is what she uses when she’s just make coffee for herself or one or two people. We also have a full-size 12 cup coffee maker for drip coffee that we keep in a closet for when we have company.

After I lost weight and was able to eat more calories in a day I was less concerned about staying full. At that point cappuccino was counterproductive since I didn’t need the 80 cal of milk. It was around then that someone at work who was also relative, sore on the subject suggested I try Americano’s. I didn’t realize that the flavor profile of the Americano was that much different than drip coffee. I decided to try it out and was surprised that I actually liked it. Over a few months I slowly moved from having cappuccinos most of the time to having Americanos with some cappuccinos here and there. At home I would boil hot water with her teakettle and poured into a double shot of espresso I would make with the Nespresso machine. It was a good solution although it was $1.25 per cup.

At this point I was curious about coffee alternatives for the house that were not drip coffee. By now I’d have drip coffee here and there when I couldn’t get an espresso-based drink. There were plenty of times before then when I simply would not have coffee if I couldn’t get an Americana or cappuccino. As I started drinking more coffee if they didn’t have an espresso-based drink I would just “suck it up” and have drip coffee. I still wasn’t a big fan of it however I was curious what alternatives I had two espressos or Americanos. Talking to friends and researching lead me to want to try a French press. It was relatively low-cost and from what I read relatively high quality coffee. I bought one on Amazon for under $30. The hardest part for me was finding coffee I wanted to get that was ground course for French presses. I ended up going to Gregory’s coffee where I get my daily mid-day work coffee and picked up a pound and had them grind it for me. I was very impressed by how the French press coffee came out at home. On the weekends that’s what I make today. I’ve been continuing to buy the Gregory’s coffee since I like it. The other day I picked up some Café grumpy ground coffee to try. The sales lady was very helpful for me to find the right flavor I like. More recently I’ve been going to grumpy’s this summer for my coffee. Nothing wrong with Gregory’s however I like the cold brew at grumpy’s better even though it’s a little bit further of a walk for me. The French press turns out to be the fifth coffee delivery mechanism I own at home.

Last summer were the summer before that high had tried cold brewed iced coffee. For someone they never drank coffee a lot 10 years ago cold brew is literally an eye-opening experience. Wow it is potent. I liked it however it was strong and rough on my stomach. This summer I realized that was I think due to the Gregory’s coffee specifically. The Starbucks cold brew or the grumpy’s cold brew work much better for me. I afternoon coffee break at work now consists of going to get cold brew since it’s so hot out. I’ve evolved from Flavia cappuccino in the morning to and Americana in the morning with a decaf Americano or a cold brew in the afternoon. I’ve had friends talk about brewing the cold brew at home. at the time of the discussions with them I wasn’t as interested. A few weeks ago I came across an article mentioning that sale on a cold brewing pitcher on Amazon. I researched it and it turned out to be one of the top two best-selling. For the price I figured to give it a try. It came this weekend while we were away at my sister-in-law’s. At the time of this writing but likely not by the time this gets posted I haven’t used it yet. Hopeful it’s not that much of a hassle to clean.

The cold brew making pitcher now makes six separate coffee preparation devices I have in my house. If six sounds excessive you are most likely correct. On a day-to-day basis I only use two of them. MC uses one other one. The coffee maker is only for company and we use it a few times a year however when we do use it it’s invaluable so it’s not something it’s going away. I don’t use the mocha pop often because it’s cumbersome to clean. I like the coffee but it’s not worth the effort. Was also very cheap to get so unlikely I’m going to get rid of it since it doesn’t take up much space. I do use the Nespresso machine several times a week however not usually for morning coffee on the weekends. I’m curious to see if I’ll actually use the cold blue pitcher however I have a feeling it might be very useful for summer months.

One interesting thing that I noticed was as much as I like a cappuccino I find that one of the most basic coffee preparation methods the French press is one of my go to options. I thought of that since I’m reminded of the most basic form of shaving options also seem to be the best. And am loving my new old-school mechanical keyboard. So even though I like high tech stuff I’m fascinated that for some things I’m drawn to old school stuff.

There you have it high 10 to 12 year evolution from not having any coffee to my twice a day fix. Nowadays I do try to have decaf in the afternoon except for when I’m doing colder since let’s face it half the point of cold brew coffee is the caffeine.

T and the Story of Daddy In Disbelief That He Has a 4 Years Old Today

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It really does feel not so long ago when I was holding a little 8 pound girl telling myself holy cow how am I a dad? I still say that myself sometimes. I’m not sure if that’s a cliché or not. There are many times when I stop think it is hard for me to grasp that I’m a dad. On that same thought however I guess I could go further and say I don’t know how I ended up with a wonderful wife and family. Maybe it’s being in denial that you’re supposed to be a role model for a little person that makes me go I don’t feel like a dad. Then of course there’s the times like the other day where I’m just sitting and watching T eat toast when she sick and having a conversation. Even while I was doing it I couldn’t help but smile and money that little girl up because she was so adorable.

That’s what makes this whole post so weird for me. It was only four years ago where I hope this little baby that I knew nothing about what to do with other than I wanted to holder and kiss her since she was mine. Now I have this smart and sassy little person who asks the funniest questions and remembers details from a year ago that I had to stop and think about before realizing she was right.

Four years ago this morning after a long night of not sleeping a little T came into the world. When she did she made my world that much brighter. Happy birthday T.

An Update on The Disembodied Female Voice Called Alexa That My Kids Always Hear Me Talking To

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When I last wrote about my Amazon echo I said I would be trying to teach it some smart things commands. Yeah, so I didn’t do that. Since setting up my Logitech Harmony with my echo to turn my TV on and off I haven’t really spent much time with the echo teaching it anything new. I’ve continue to use the echo. Apparently not as much as other people who are very vocal about how awesome it is however I am using it. My use case has become listening to music and checking the weather. Of course the main reason I bought the echo in the first place was I wanted to use voice commands to listen to music and my phone paired with a Bose Bluetooth speaker wasn’t doing that very well. With that fact in mind the echo is extremely successful at what I originally purchased it for

I did have hopes of using it for more than just music. I’m not sure if it’s usefulness hasn’t improved for me because I do not use Google for contacts, calendars, tasks. I also do not currently get my news from the radio or TV. I could see using an echo in my bedroom to listen to news stories as in getting ready in the morning however I don’t see the cost benefit of buying another device to do that specific task. The current echo I have is in our living room and suits its primary function very well in that location.

I could see over time having another device in different rooms however I’m holding back on that partly due to curiosity if Apple will release something to compete against the echo. They likely will however what the product turns out to be is anyone’s guess. And plenty of people are guessing, so I’m not going to. Until Apple makes an announcement I keep reading the weekly updates I get from Amazon on what new tricks the echo can perform to see if there’s any new features that will peak my interest. So far I’m still waiting.

One thing I do want to find time to focus on is ;to see if I can integrate my smart things with the echo a bit. That project however is not on the top of my hobby project list. Of course there’s a lot of specific things I want to do with my smart things that I haven’t done in over a year. Since we want to get a house at some point in the near term investing in any fixed devices such as power or light switches in this apartment doesn’t seem worth the value or time. All this extra integration might just wait until after we move.

The W Sisters and The Bedtime Stories Circa 15-August

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What I have realized even before I had little kids was that parents of little kids find the most normal or minor actions from children to be pretty funny. Even when I was not apparent I could totally get the point. I am not sure of everyone else does however I keep saying my kids are my entertainment budget. They really are. And I love it. Instead of writing little blurbs on Facebook like I know some people do I’ve been trying to turn comments are funny things I remember in two small stories.

I’ve been in a good place when it comes to writing recently so I have a backlog of things to publish and write about. This scratch that these minor anecdotes are from August 15.

Prior to getting ready for our bedtime routine T was complaining to me about something Amelia was doing wrong. I think Teagan takes it upon herself as big sister to do that. Or she just wants to annoy us, I’m not really sure. Now that T is understanding things more I try to explain to her stuff. That is probably not the best use of my time in a lot of instances however I try. In this case I tried to explain to T that she should worry about herself and not worry about what Amelia was doing if it’s not directly impacting her. I will give myself credit since I thought but didn’t say to her and nobody likes a rat. Teagan’s response to my commenting to her was that I shouldn’t worry about her and I should worry about myself. Touché Teagan, touché.

Later that evening I was reading stories to the girls. In recent months A likes to snuggle and have my hand around her waist. She says that she’s buckled in when I do that. T is hit or miss on the smuggling. For a few weeks she will needed to do it and then she stopped for a little while. As I was reading A blurts out “no, no, no, hold on”. She then proceeded to take the book and flip back a page. She had unanswered questions about the picture that she wanted me to address.

I believe this was also the same night that the girls insisted on having me have Alexa (aka our Amazon Echo) play the song “Fight Song” about three or four times. They danced around during the whole song. They even got crazier in their dancing is the temple of the song picked up for the chorus. I was lucky enough or smart enough to remember to take a video of one full song so I could send it to M and share it with our parents. I think Teagan started liking that song from Morgan’s bat mitzvah otherwise I have no idea where she heard it from. I would like to give a shout out to my brother-in-law Michael for the “Dance Party” idea. I can sometimes get them to dance around to other songs however this is their favorite one. Based on the lack of response from our downstairs neighbor pretty sure he works late during week.

Securing Email Isn’t Only For Spies, Dissidents, & Journalists, Right?

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Over the past year and a half I have been taking lots of steps to secure my digital life. I’ve written a lot about the different aspects of that. My migration from Google mail and other services to more secured options.

One thing I’ve known has been a concern that I’ve not yet addressed the quantity of data online. For example even though I moved my mail to a Swiss based provider I still had my entire email archive available. I have mail going back as far as 1997 I believe. I have been wanting to take that archive off-line and out my email provider’s servers. Over the years I’ve had the packrat mentality where I want to keep all of my messages. Recently I’ve grown to not want many of the messages I received. I’ve been deleting stuff that are unnecessary however there are still things that I get a do want to keep. In general I would like to keep the archive, especially my personal correspondence.

The challenge that I have is that I’m growing less trustworthy of any service provider. Even though my email hosting company is in Switzerland they take no extraordinary security precaution so the system is just as susceptible to hacking as most. That means my mail at rest is in the clear, unencrypted. But I want to do is take my mail and store it off-line so I have more control over it. I currently plan on keeping it in a local archive on my Mac at home. I will also have it backed up on my bit torrent sync network.

The first step in this process was for me to copy all of my mail to a local application. For my purposes I found the built-in Mac mail application to work the best. Once I had a downloaded copy of all the mail I was able to export it to an mBox formatted archive. At the same time I took the opportunity to recategorized how I organized my mail. In the past when I was using Google I had been using tags extensively. When I exported out of Google I went back to a folder structure where each high-level tag was its own folder where I put received mail. When I exported the mail to a local folder I put all sent mail in one folder and all received mail and another. Using mail tags I was able to continue to tag and make smart queries of the male if I ever needed to get a hold of the categories that I used in the past.

Once I had the off-line mBox files I put them in an archive on my BitTorrent Sync network. I kept the live copy in my Mac mail on my computer in case I need to search for and email in the archive. Over the past few weeks after I’ve done this I’m surprised how often I do go back and reference old emails for things like key codes or when did I buy something. After I was satisfied that the mail was backed up I deleted it from my hosting provider.I did leave this calendar year’s mail on my hosting provider. I figured that was a good round number to keep online. I can annually do an archive. Having to be at home or to remote into my home computer to perform mail queries has become a slight inconvenience however it hasn’t been the end of the world.

In addition to moving my entire mail archive off-line I want go further and start using a secured email provider like proton mail that takes extraordinary steps to encrypt the data at rest.I do not need that level of security for all my mail however does come in handy for some of it. There’s been several messages I’ve been hesitant to send or had no choice but to send that contain sensitive information such as bank information or Social Security numbers in the past that I would prefer not to use via email. And of course that’s not my paranoia security experts say never do that. Having a secured provider that encrypts the mail at rest and also has mechanism for sending secured mail to others could be useful. Really what he secure mail is doing is it sending email to the recipient with a link back to the website that secured that contains the actual message. I need to provide a password hint in the body of the mail I send. It’s not perfect however in most cases it will solve the problem of sending outbound secured man.

One of the challenges in a system such as proton mail is that at present there is no mechanism to import or export mail. That means anything I receive is locked into that system. On day one that’s not a problem however I like to have data portability. Protonmail says they are working on that function however who knows when or if it will ever come to pass. I may still use them for some correspondence only and in essence had two private email addresses one for security and one for unsecured messages. That way I can route one I want secured to the encrypted system.

I’ve also been looking at Tutanota as an alternative to proton mail. It appears to have the same import and export limitations however otherwise seems like a very similar and comparable option. Both systems offer a free tier.I signed up for both services to play around with them. I’ve since signed up for a month-to-month service with both of them and them in the process of pointing in unused email domain to Mutant, while I’ve already completed setting up proton mail. Protonmail so far seems like a slightly better option in terms of usability however it is significantly more money per month than Tutanota. The only reason I signed up for the paid version of Tutanota after I signed up for Protonmail was because it was less than two dollars a month.I hope to give both services try for a month or two before settling on one or the other.

For now the combination of moving my mail off-line and having a encrypted provider as needed suits my needs. These changes are all still pretty new so I will see how things pan out over the next month or two before I decide to make any tweaks or to let the situation be as is for the time being.

The Coffee Making Equivalent of Pandora’s Box

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I finally got around to making some cold brew iced coffee using the Brewer I bought the other week. In retrospect I should never have bought it. I should never of learned how easy it is to make cold brew concentrate. I had my 1st cup of it yesterday. It was fantastic. I put too much sweetener in it but it was still really good. The next cup I made I put less sweeter and it was perfect.

By the time we put the girls to bed last night it was late for them at 8:30 PM. I had to fight the urge t make another cop since I wouldn’t sleep with that much caffeine at 8:30 PM.

This morning I got the swinger to coffee to water ratio perfect at breakfast.
Now that I have this knowledge I cannot unlearn it. It’s like I opened Pandora’s box and it was delicious crack.  Mmmm so delicious.

The W Sisters and The Story of A’s 2nd Birthday Cake We Don’t Really Talk About

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As of me writing this post in late August M and I were talking about planning out T’s birthday. Inevitably the conversation we talked birthdays leads to birthday cake. As we were talking about the cake M is planning we were reminiscing on Amelia’s second birthday cake.

M’s Facebook friends might recall that she made a fantastic fandant Paddington Bear themed cake. It was pretty damn awesome. People were commenting that they could not tell one was food and one was a stuffed animal. Needless to say she was very proud of her awesome cake design. That cake was the cake we had for her birthday party with the family around New Year’s. One of M’s brother and family were in town so we had her birthday party when they were around. It was the weekend after A’s birthday. I mentioned that because since all the ladies in my house my wife included love cake M decided to make a smaller cake specifically for Amelia on her actual birthday.

I am not 100% clear on the specifics around the cake making. If I recall I think M ran out of convection or sugar and gave it a go making frosting with regular sugar. It was either that or using regular sugar was an accident. In any event towards the end of the preparations it was clear that using regular sugar was a problem. M warned me about it however we both agreed we have a three and a two-year-old and its cake. They weren’t going to really care. As it turned out they didn’t. They ate that cake up or at least the one slice they got each.

We gave A the cake and had a little ceremony after dinner. Our babysitter was still around since it was early. I believe we want her not to have it. Both of us on the other hand tried it anyway. M had a small slice and I don’t recall if she finished it. I had a smallish, probably regular size slice and I finished it. It was crunchy and it shouldn’t of been. It was also superset.

Overall the cake was pretty bad. That’s why it’s sad for me to say I went to go get a second slice and M had to throw the cake out to prevent me from doing something we both knew I was probably going to regret. Yet another reason why I love my wife. She’s trying to look out for me.

8 Years and Counting

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Today is the eighth anniversary of my starting to work at Thomson Reuters. On one hand it does feel like I’ve been here for a long time. On the other hand it’s still challenging to grasp that it’s been eight years. One of the things I’ve learned that’s good about a large company is it changes as well as your role changes so even though it’s been eight years I’m not doing the same thing I was doing when I started in September 2008.

Thomson Reuters for me by the numbers was something I was thinking about in my head the other day. In the eight years that I’ve been working here lots of things have changed for me. I have managed five different groups. Six if you count the one I had for about a week or so however I don’t. I’ve had five different positions. I’ve gone through three different managers. Funny enough I switched between all them within a three-month period that started with a voicemail when I was returning from my honeymoon. I have worked out of three different offices as well as working from home however if you really counted out I’ve gone from Office 1, to Office 2, to Office 3, back to Office 2.

On a personal side I have lived in three different apartments. I have dated, got engaged, got married. Oh and I also two kids within those eight years. In context my life is vastly different than it was on September 8, 2008. On a personal and professional level far better off than where I was. In anti-climactic fashion I realized about a year and a half after it happened that I have been at Reuters longer than any other company.

The W Sisters and The Story of Their Love of Cake, Cupcakes Work Too

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I am not really sure where or when it started. On Teagan’s first birthday M made her own smash cake. It took a little bit of prodding to get T to dig into it. We had to cut it before she would grab a big piece of it. A week after her first birthday we did a photo shoot with a cake smash. Half the photos she’s having a blast kicking and grabbing the frosting. There are others that she’s a little disturbed by the cake.

A on the other hand had an epic meltdown when she did her first cake much on camera. M even put rice crackers in the cake that she loved hoping that she would grab at them. We think it only made her sad that the crackers were surrounded by this sticky stuff. My favorite photo of A’s cake smash is her off to the side of a photo studio where you can see the edge of the backdrop. Amelia is lying on her side looking sad and exhausted the little bit of frosting on her nose.

From those humble beginnings of cake eating to today is somewhat fuzzy. This is one of those instances where I should’ve written about this a long time ago and of all the story as it happened. That way I would remember more details.

For T at least ever since she could speak she would be interested in cake. Whether it was someone’s party where she would ask “Cake?”. Or as she grew older “We have cake?”. She always seem to be interested in parties and the inevitable cake or cupcake that go along with it. My unscientific theory is that we limit the sweets the kids can have. Parties with cake or cupcakes are generally where have them most regularly. I can see where they would grow fondness for the cake and cupcakes because we limited their exposure overall. It’s not like we don’t let them have anything ever. M and I love cupcakes. And since M is a fantastic cake maker we love cake too. Maybe that’s why the girls love it. They see how much we enjoyed it as well.

A has also come along way. For her second birthday and more recent cake eating experiences she will clutch the cake and frosting in her hands you cannot get rid of it until she’s done without an argument. A still doesn’t like frosting on her hands. She’ll ask for or motion to you to get wipes to clean your hands shall forget about that while grabbing hold of a piece of cake were eating frosting right off of it.

My children are if anything but persistent. Whenever we say we’re going to a party to matter what kind of party it may be T asks will there be cake. For my niece Morgan’s Bat mitzvah I was describing all the awesome food that would likely be there. All T wanted to know was would there be any cake. To get to the bottom of that question I called my sister and put her on speaker phone with T. T was sad to hear that there likely wouldn’t be cake even though there would be tons of other sweet desserts. In the end there was cake and T had a blast of a time. A was interested in the cake question also was not is generally focused has Teagan was on it.

As I write this T’s birthday is coming up. She’s been talking for months about what kind of cake she wants M to make. Now M did originally bring up the topic however T has been consistent on her answer for some time. She wants and Elsa cake. For her third birthday she wanted elephant and piggy. For her second birthday she got a monkey like her favorite monkey stuffed animal. For her first birthday she got duckies. A on the other hand got Paddington Bear for her second birthday. She got a winter snowman and snowflake theme for her first birthday. Even though we’ve been talking to T for months on what she wants for her cake I do not recall A having an opinion one way or the other at this point. I am going to have to remember to ask her about that.

So please if you’re going to invite the T & A to a party let there be cake or cupcakes work too…

The Blog Post Were I Write About Watch Straps for Seven Paragraphs

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Can you tell the difference between these two watch straps? Visually there isn’t much of a difference. Holding them they feel pretty similar however there is a noticeable difference between the two. What distinguishes one from the other? If you look closely enough can see that one of them has the word Omega etched into it. That little etching equates to a vast difference in price.

Is the Omega strap better? After wearing  both for a while I would say yes. Is the Omega strap much better even slightly more comfortable than the other one? I would say yes. Is it worth many times more money than the generic one? Probably not.

This is a situation where I’m reminded of the Steve Jobs biography where the author discusses Jobs theory on best versus average of something. I think the used knives for the analogy. The point was do you buy a cheap $10 knife. Do you by a $75 knife or do you buy the top-of-the-line $400 knife? If your chef you might need that extra bit of “better” you get from the $400 knife. In most other cases you’re probably best served with the $75. I think the argument was average were really good to the best ever is only about 10 to 15% in a lot of cases. I know that any number like that is suspect however the sentiment I think holds true.

With these NATO watch straps I think the sentiment also holds true. The Omega one is better. At least in my opinion. It is a much more flexible and comfortable my lawn. It feels more sturdy.The clasp is a bit easier to get on and off. Overall I think it’s a better band.  Using the analogy from the jobs biography however it’s only probably better 10 to 15%. In my opinion it’s not worth the massive price premium I paid for it. I still don’t regret the purchase. I am even considering possibly another one.

Why am I talking about watch straps anyway? For starters I’ve spent a bunch of time in recent months researching and buying a few NATO straps for my watches. Since this is my blog and all I felt like writing about it.

I wore a NATO strap 2 summers ago. I wore one for a few months on my X-33. I liked it however at the time I missed the metal band and switched back to it after a while. In recent months I’ve liked the idea of switching out my watch bands more often. It’s a little bit of extra style and I thought it was cool to be able to do that without having to go to someone to swap out a leather or metal band.

In June I took my X-33 in to have its metal band removed so I can use a NATO strap. At the same time I splurged and picked up the black and green Omega NATO strap. After getting the Omega strap I bought two more straps that were significantly cheaper online so I had a variety. Who cares if you can swap out straps to watch when you only have one of them or in my case two of them that are identical. I purchased a thick nylon band in a gray green. I also picked up a black leather one. After wearing all them I ended up liking the Omega one the best however the leather one is still pretty good. The gray green nylon one is a bit too stiff and I won’t be buying that brand nylon strap again.

After a few weeks of wearing a variety of bands on my X-33 I took in my speed master to also have its leather straps removed so I could use interchangeable NATO straps. I was very tempted to buy the leather NATO strap from the Omega store. The leather strap seemed more reasonably priced in comparison to other nice leather bands however I wasn’t sure if I liked the color so I passed on it for now.

Since swapping out the bands on both watches I have bought another nylon band in a different color pattern. I plan on getting a few more however i have enough of a variety now to keep things interesting for a little while. I am still not 100% sold if I will keep using the NATO straps on all my watches however for now I am pretty happy.

If you are a James Bond fan then yes another cool thing about these gray and black NATO strap is that it looks like the classic James Bond Goldfinger strap. I was surprised when I previously researched that many people pull off nylon straps on my fancy watches in fancy dress clothes such as suits or tuxedos. For me that was the final deciding factor on they will work with any style clothing. Of course that same research yielded me wearing Chuck Taylor’s with khakis and dress pants. The Internet is a wonderful thing.