What I Read: November 2017

The second to last month of the year is over. I'm happy that 2018 is almost here. I managed to read quite a bit in November. This year has been a very good reading year for me, because I'm finally making it a priority. I'm not wasting as much time on the internet. I will say I'm not spending as much time on my other hobbies, which kind of sucks, so I definitely think my reading will scale back next year. At this point, I just want to see how many books I can read in a year. With 33 of books read this month, my total so far is 177. I'm hoping to hit 200 by the end of 2017, which I do think I can pull off. November has definitely been my most productive month reading wise.

My favorite book this month was Talking As Fast As I Can by Lauren Graham. I rated it 5/5 stars. She was one of the main actors in Gilmore Girls, which is one of my favorite shows. I finally finished the show and the reboot they did recently this summer. In this book, she talks all about filming Gilmore Girls, the reboot, and everything in between. I learned a lot of cool things about her life that I didn't know. I listened to audiobook version that Lauren Graham narrated. It was so good! Celebrity-narrated audiobooks are among one of the reasons I started listening to audiobooks. I definitely recommend this book!

I also really enjoyed The Woman In Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware. It was a really cool mystery/thriller that had a different plot than what I expected. I also rated this one 5/5 stars.

Moving on to some great but not amazing books. The following will all be ones that I rated 4/5 stars. I listened to Hunger by Roxane Gay. This was a memoir about a woman's experience with her body and how things that have happened in her life have affected her. It was a very honest and real look at how sexual assault can change your life. It's particularly relevant with all the men getting exposed for sexual assault right now. I also listened to Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes. This was all about saying yes to things even if you are an introvert and nervous. It was very funny and offered some good tips throughout. Black Edge by Sheelah Kolhatkar is a fantastic insight into how corrupt Wall Street is. I don't wanna make this post too long, so here's a quick list of some other good ones I read: Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neil, Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg, and Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher.

I'm still chugging along with The Walking Dead graphic novels. I finished volumes 12 through 17 this month. As I keep mentioning, they're not anything special, but I do like to see the similarities and the differences with the show.

Last but not least, here's some mediocre (3/5 stars) and disappointing reads (2/5 stars). The mediocre ones were A Walk In The Woods by Bill Bryson, Dark Places by Gillian Flynn, and Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss. Two disappointing ones were Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut and Through The Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. Here's to finishing out 2017 strong! It'll be interesting to see how many I can finish before January 1st. Thanks for looking!

The Sims 4 On PS4 First Impressions

Hey everybody! I've mentioned in the past that I play video games. This has been such a good year for video games, and I'd like to start bringing more posts about them onto the blog. One of my favorite games as a kid was The Sims on PC, so I was super excited when I heard they were bringing Sims 4 to consoles. I picked up Sims 4 on PS4 the day after it launched and have put a decent amount of hours into it so far. I'm very happy I can finally play Sims when I'm at school. I don't have a computer good enough to play Sims on, so I've only been able to play on breaks ever since I went off to college. I've enjoyed this version so far and highly recommend you pick it up!

The PS4 version is pretty much the same as the PC version, where the only major differences are in the controls. It took me a little while to get used to the controls. I do think they're pretty good and make sense for the console. Using the joysticks instead of a mouse was weird at first. If you've never heard of The Sims franchise before, it's essentially a life simulation game. You can create characters and their homes. You can move them through life so they get jobs, acquire skills, have a family, etc. There's no story plot or end game. Basically you're controlling virtual people. It's not for everyone, but I've always found it to be kind of addicting. There's a lot of customization available too, so you can make characters like yourself.

I don't have any major complaints so far. I already mentioned my issues with the controls at first. When it launched, there were lots of issues with saving and losing hours of game play. I've had no issues with saving whatsoever. I save frequently anyways, so I'm not sure what specific issues others were having. A patch for the saving issues has been released, which means that should be all good now. There's some glitches that happen every now and then, but nothing to ruin the experience. I've had so much fun playing thus far. It has taken everything that made The Sims great on PC and made it accessible to play on the PS4 or Xbox One. I paid $50 for mine. Considering how many hours of game play I'll get out of it, I do think it's worth it. With Black Friday and other holiday deals, you should be able to find it cheaper. If you're looking for a fun, mindless game to play, I do recommend you check it out. I find myself playing games on consoles more than on PC, so this release couldn't have come at a better time. Thanks for looking!

EDC Update: End of November 2017

Hey everybody! I haven't done any sort of EDC update on here in a while, so I'm going to talk about some of the changes I've made to my carry recently. At the top of the photo minus the green Preon P2, I've got my current EDC: Spyderco Ladybug, Victorinox Pioneer, Fisher Bullet space pen, FourSevens new Preon P1 and Victorinox Classic. I just swapped in both the Pioneer and new Preon P1. The purple and blue combo looks so cool! The most used piece of gear from my rotation currently is the Classic. It's easily surpassed the Ladybug in terms of pure usage. I surprising haven't had much need for the Ladybug recently, but it still is my favorite knife. I've also been occasionally carrying a mid-sized knife, mostly the Benchmade 705. I'm going to start researching compact pens soon. I still love the Bullet, but it'd be nice to have another option to rotate.

The FourSevens Preon P2 is in the photo, because I'm considering taking it out of my backpack. Usually I'll keep it in my college bag 24/7 as a backup, but I've had issues with accidentally bumping the tailcap and turning on the light without realizing it. I either need to put it somewhere else in my bag, or replace it with a some sort of twisty light. I didn't get why people would complain about the tailcaps so much in the past, yet I finally get it now. 

The headphones are a replacement for a crappy pair of Apple earbuds I had. I've been wanting to pick up some wireless headphones, and thanks to a sale and some reward certificates from Best Buy, I picked up these TaoTronics ones. I believe the model is the Deimos. I ended up paying $10 for them overall, and I will say I got what I paid for. The sound quality is probably some of the worst I've had ever in headphones. There's lots of static, and I've had issues with the range too. The battery doesn't last long, so I've got to charge them every day, which is pretty annoying. They're surprisingly bulky too. I have a bigger pair of wireless, over-the-ear headphones from Sony that I love, but I don't like to wear them around campus. The Sony pair is definitely superior to these ones. I honestly just wanted to see if I liked the concept for in-ear headphones. Once these die, I can see myself upgrading to a nicer pair. 

Last but not least, I add my Olight i3E to my keys for when I come back to my apartment late at night. Now that it's getting darker earlier, I figured it was time I finally added a dedicated light to my keys, so I don't have to go digging through my bag for one. It's been working well on my keys so far. That's about all the major changes I've made to my carry lately. I've do have a college backpack EDC update in the works. Stay tuned for that soon, because there's been some changes since last year. Thanks for looking!

Benchmade 705 Thoughts

I've had the opportunity to try out this Benchmade 705 for the past few months, courtesy of my friend Laura. Huge thanks to her! I've enjoyed carrying it as an EDC knife, but I will say, it's nothing fancy. The materials aren't going to blow you away by any means. The design is simple and is one of those ones that just work for EDC without looking that cool. I will say, if you're looking to buy this knife, you won't be able to find it easily. It has long since been discontinued, and when I tried looking it up on eBay, I didn't find any for a decent price. I'm sure they pop up occasionally on Instagram and eBay if you would like to pick one up.

Blade wise, there's nothing that stands out. I've got no huge complaints about it. I like how simple the blade shape is. It's a nice mid-sized option, coming in just under 3" at 2.95." The steel on it is 154CM, which isn't amazing in this day and age, but it's still perfectly adequate for my needs. I'm not typically a fan of thumbstuds, but I like these ones. Paired with the Axis lock, this knife is a joy to flick open and closed. The smoothness on all Benchmades is unlike any other blades I've tried.

I do have a slight issue with the handle. Where your thumb rests, the handle swoops upward slightly. It's a nice touch, but that means it isn't flat where the spine of the blade meets the handle. I've found that there is only one real way to comfortably hold this knife, as the handle will jab into you if you try to choke up. I wish Benchmade had just smoothed out where the spine of the blade and handle meet. Besides that, the ergos are just okay overall. I'd say this knife is on the smaller side of mid-size blades. The handle is 3.8" overall, which is a decent amount of space. For some reason though, it feels kind of cramped to me. I have smaller hands, so I can only imagine how cramped it might feel if you've got bigger hands. I can still fit a four-finger grip, yet there's just something about it that feels kind of weird. The scales are G-10, but they don't feel like G-10 to me. They've got a smoother texture that reminds me of FRN. This is an old knife, so maybe the G-10 has worn down over time. There is some jimping on the thumb ramp and where your first finger goes that help add some extra grip. There's also couple of grooves in the scales that only function cosmetically. I think they look kind of dumb, but that's just me. The clip is a standard clip and works well. The knife doesn't feel all that light to me, yet it always seem to disappear when I carry it. Like I mentioned earlier, the Axis lock is tons of fun to play with, and it functions well as a lock too. There's some side to side blade play on this one, but I'm sure that could be fixed by tightening the pivot.

Overall, this isn't a flashy knife by any means. It'd be a nicer, classy option for sure. Though this model is discontinued, the 710 is still being produced by Benchmade and is essentially the bigger brother to this knife. The 707 is also kind of similar design wise, but I think Benchmade also discontinued that one recently. I don't think I would've bought this for my rotation. I had fun giving it a try though. I'm not sure what it went for back in its time. Knowing Benchmade's ridiculous price, I'm sure it was over $100. Personally, I wouldn't pay that much for a bland knife with just G-10 and 154CM. I will say, giving this knife a try kind of makes me want to pick up another Benchmade just so I can play with the Axis lock. If you're absolutely in love with the design, I say it's worth the effort to track down. Honestly, you can get a better knife material wise for a cheaper price nowadays. There's lot of other G-10, mid-sized blades out there on the market now. Thanks for looking!

FourSevens New Preon P1 First Impressions

I managed to pick up this FourSevens new Preon P1 for $12 during a sale FourSevens was having. I love my classic P1 so much that I knew I'd eventually pick up the upgraded model. I did get the opportunity to try a new Preon P2 at the beginning of the year and liked the design changes overall. I still prefer the look of the classic Preons, but the upgraded ones have their own appeal. 

So the two biggest differences between the classic and new P1 is the grooves and the inclusion of the clicky. The grooves feel pretty cool and aren't as noticeable as you'd expect. I absolutely love to have clicky lights in my EDC, so I'm happy the new P1 has one. It does have the temporary on, which I do like. It'll be interesting to see if it's easy to accidentally turn on. I know that was a huge complaint with the clicky on the classic Preon P2. 

The clip seems a little too big to me. I love the blue! It's not as vibrant as the classic, yet it still looks very nice. FourSevens has implemented different configuration levels on all their newer lights. It's a pain the butt to switch the modes, but I did get mine set up the way I wanted. The default mode is High/Low, and I ended up changing mine to Low/Medium/High/Strobe. I will say it wasn't as annoying to change as the twisty Mini Mk. II I had. At least now I won't have to change it again. The output seems to be pretty good. I think max output is 100 lumens, which is pretty typical for a AAA light. It'll be fun to carry it, and see how it compares to the classic. I'll definitely get up a comparison post once I've carried it enough. Stay tuned for more posts on it in the future. Thanks for looking!

Kershaw GTC Hops Thoughts

The Kershaw GTC Hops is an interesting, little knife. It's an okay knife overall, but I don't recommend it unless you're really in love with the design. 

I've had several issues with Kershaw's quality over the years, but this blade is perfect quality wise. It's a budget blade coming in at $25, so I was pleasantly surprised there were no issues. 

Design wise, I think you really have to love the design to appreciate this as a knife. I've never heard much of GTC, whom Kershaw collaborated with on this blade. I would assume a lot of their knives are reminiscent of this. The dual tone metal handle is not really my cup of tea. I saw various photos online that looked a lot better than it does in person. It's not the ugliest knife in the world, and I wouldn't say it's the prettiest either. It does function adequately for EDC though.

Blade wise, this is what you'd expect from a budget Kershaw. The steel is 8Cr13MoV, which isn't anything fancy obviously. It's been perfectly fine for my usage The blade is just under 2", so that's cool. 

As far as the handle goes, the ergos are decent to bad. I've had better ergos on other small knives. This is a three finger knife, which I'm not typically fond of. It does work out well enough on this knife. The worst part of the ergos is where the lock is cut out. Right above the finger groove, there's a jagged piece that digs uncomfortably into my hand all the time. I don't know if that's the way it is on all of them, or if it's just the way mine was cut. The clip also seems to dig into my hand quite a bit as well. If you have bigger hands, I don't think this knife would feel good in your hands at all. The finger groove is pretty small, so I can only see it fitting well in smaller hands. 

I absolutely hate how the handles are made of metal. The metal helps contribute to the poor ergos, since they're pretty squared off throughout the handle. The handles also make this knife extremely heavy. This knife is too heavy considering how small it is. The various cutouts honestly look stupid and don't contribute any extra grip. There's no jimping anywhere on this blade. I don't mind that at all.

To cover a few other things, the pocket clip looks cool, yet it's too tight to be practical. I'm sure I could get it looser over time. I like that Kershaw made it blue for a nice splash of color. The framelock is fine. There's no issues with lockup. There may be a tiny bit of play, but nothing that makes the knife unusable. 

I will say I didn't think I'd like the spring assisted action, but it's pretty neat on this particular knife. With a blade this small, there's less distance for it to travel upon opening, so it seems to whip out much faster than all the other spring assisted knives I've tried. The flipper is easy to use, but I wish it didn't have the weird cutout. Kershaw intended it to function as a bottle opener too. I can't say how well it works, since I never need to open bottles. It just seems like a waste of effort. 

For $25, this is exactly what I'd expect. It's an unremarkable knife. I don't really recommend it. As an EDC knife, it'd suck. It's too heavy, and the ergos suck. The Spyderco Ladybug is a much better alternative for $5 to $10 more. I like that Kershaw is trying to do more small knives, but this one was a waste of their time. Do not pick this blade up. Thanks for looking!

Deal Alert! FourSevens Flashlights

Hey everybody! If you've been thinking of buying a FourSevens Mini Mk. II or the new blue Preon P1, check out FourSevens website right now. They're doing a Fall Cleaning Clearance sale to get rid of some of their limited edition models. The deals are insane on those two models. I just picked up the blue Preon P1 for $12! That's 70% off the original price. The limited edition Mini Mk. II combos are either $37 (for copper) or $42 (for rainbow titanium or titanium). That's 50% off for a light that does almost 1,000 lumens. Check out the link here if you want to check out all the current clearance deals. Huge thanks to my buddy Laura for the heads up! Once they sell out, I think that's it, so jump on it quick if you're interested. At the time of this post, all of the models mentioned are still in stock. FourSevens does give free shipping too, so honestly it's too good of a deal to resist. It's pretty unheard of for the manufacturer's website to have the cheapest prices. Thanks for looking! Stay tuned for the new Preon P1 unboxing soon!