Friday 24 February 2017

Friday 24/2/17 - A Pencast & This Week's Wristwatches.



Wore the WatchCo Seamaster 300 briefly last weekend. Since adding a half-link to the bracelet, I've gotten a better fit out of it on warm days when my wrist swells up a little. 



I wore the Oris Diver Sixty-Five early in the week, before switching over to something a little dressier, the Longines Expeditions Polaires. I was thinking of getting a lizard-skin strap off eBay for this watch, but the watchmaker I work with said that, because it's an exotic skin, it could get stuck in customs for months. 
I may try looking around for a local seller. The hunt begins.






Dear God, that handwriting! I plan to do a little more of it, in an effort to sharpen it up a little. 
My writing was noticeably better when I was studying a couple of years ago and writing down notes by hand. 
Use it or lose it, kids. 
Use it or lose it.






And today, I took a quick slacker break to get a picture of the Oris Diver Sixty-Five, back on my wrist. I decided to wear a tie in to work, in an effort to launch a one-man crusade against Casual Fridays. 

The world is dumbing down and getting lazy. I sit on the train in the morning and look around me to see 90% of my fellow travellers looking down at their precious mobile phones. 
Granted, I check my e-mails and battery saver settings (now THAT'S a pain in the neck!), but you will never find me playing some silly game  or watching an episode of Family Guy on my freakin' phone. 

For somebody who first went to the movies to see What's Up Doc? (Dir: Peter Bogdanovich, 1972), I can think of nothing worse than watching something on a 9cm screen. 
That's how it's dumbing down. 
As for lazy, this is happening because too many men just don't take the trouble to look sharp anymore. I see young guys catching the train and they're wearing trousers and an ill-fitting business shirt. And that's all. No jacket, no tie. 
No style. 
My wife read out a quote to me by actor Michael Wincott. You may know him from Alien: Resurrection and he's done a couple of episodes of Westworld and will soon be seen in the next Scarlett Johansson film Ghost In The Shell, due out later this year. 
Anyway, he once said;

"It's good to dress well. Elegance expresses greater expectations of life. The current culture of slovenliness conveys a spiritual and intellectual surrender." 

How did I manage to remember this quote? I typed it up on a little piece of paper and stuck it on the fridge door. It's faded a little since I typed it. 
Wincott's right. To me, it's not about having to look super-sharp every day. It's just about making an effort, however small. Which is why you'll never see me wearing track pants unless I'm going to the gym. 
Although, on the days when I just can't be bothered, I can be seen going to buy milk or fuel wearing knee-ripped chinos and a t-shirt. That's as low as I'll go. 

So yeah, the world ain't gonna end with a whimper or a bang. It's gonna end slowly, through apathy, bad manners, lousy service and poor grammar, for starters. 

Which is why I wore a crisp shirt and a nice tie to work today. Somebody's gotta fly the flag.
Especially when it's made of cotton and silk. 

Okay, 10:02pm. Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

5 comments:

  1. Great quote.
    Your handwriting is much nicer than mine. I'm behind on posting any pen cast due to my sloppiness.
    I have no idea why so many people need to be staring into a tiny screen continuously. I think as you stated, dumbness.
    Here is one on proper dress; when I was a very young boy my Grandmother would tell me how her dad and the other coal miners dressed in a suit when they went to pick up their pay from the pay master at the end of the week. I thought they got paid as they left the mine, but they went home, got dressed in a suit, and went to the mine office.

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    1. Thank-you, BM. I think folks these days are developing very short attention spans, thanks to their tiny screens.
      Those old miners knew what it was all about. I think people back then (and even up to maybe the late 1970s/early 1980s) had a better sense of how important it is to dress accordingly. It showed that you made an effort.

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  2. Yes, you're handwriting is a better than mine by a fair pace, which is again one reason why I like writing on typewriters.

    I liked the pen-cast, it's a good compromise when you're too tired for typewriters but still want to put out something interesting.

    I'm a sloppy dresser just because my day job has me working in a factory; but I try to dress up a bit on my YouTube videos.

    Keep up the good work, see you next week.

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  3. Love the Oris Sixty-Five! A friend of mine bought it last week. I hadn't seen it before, but I fell in love immediately. Personally, for me, the nicest diver on sale today.

    During summer it even gets worse, since when is it appropriate (for a guy... :)) to wear shorts to work?

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  4. @ Joe V, my handwriting really tends to fluctuate, which can be annoying.
    Pen-cast seemed like a good idea, but I felt sleepy by the end of it. I blame the lighting.
    And yes, I think you look nicely turned-out in your videos, sir.

    @ Stijn, The Diver Sixty-Five is an instant classic. It's been a great success for Oris, and I'll have to get around to writing a review on it sometime soon.
    As for shorts to work, only if you work for the Coast Guard or are a gardener.

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