What's the best thing you bought recently?
08-19-2015
, 12:39 AM
New thread because JL514 wanted one! Previous thread is here.
Old stuff
Quick summary of the stuff I mentioned in that thread or bought as a result of it:
- Bose QC15s - they are a great great product, but I managed to get an excellent price on the QC20i. In ear is just much more versatile for day to day use, plus much more practical for using on a plane. Smaller carrying case and they are much easier to sleep in. I should sell the QC15s.
- All-clad pan - yeah, great.
- Inov-8 230s - still great, I own these in various colours and wear them 95%+ of the time. I have a jet black pair I wear to the office every day.
- Quest bars - Meh. I got sick of the taste pretty quickly, I'd rather drink protein shakes or just eat Clif if I need something in bar form.
- Anker chargers - I picked up a couple of these with the 4 inch amazon brand cables, pretty handy to have around.
New stuff
- I spent quite a lot on Sennheiser HD600s and an AMP/DAC, which are great but I haven't used a ton.
- I bought this mat to use with my standing desk, it's great.
- These Lodge pan scrapers are surprisingly useful.
- I'm getting a lot of enjoyment from Spotify, Netflix and Audible recently. All super standard but all very slick services.
- Lastly, Joby Magnetic Gorillapod
Of recent purchases this is likely the thing that I'm most happy with. I'm currently working remotely with a coach/physio and it means I have to take a ton of video of various exercises for the two of us to review. In the past I'd have just put the phone on the floor and got crappy video whereas now I can just stick it to anything in the gym. It's a niche thing for sure but it does exactly what I need it to very well, and if you have similar needs I'd strongly recommend picking this up.
- My next large purchase will likely be a beefed up computer and the consumer version of the Oculus Rift in early 2016.
In conclusion, nothing too interesting from me, so what have you bought that has given you pleasure? I'm expecting to see a ton of Anova posts!
Edit - guys, please include pics and links in your posts!
Old stuff
Quick summary of the stuff I mentioned in that thread or bought as a result of it:
- Bose QC15s - they are a great great product, but I managed to get an excellent price on the QC20i. In ear is just much more versatile for day to day use, plus much more practical for using on a plane. Smaller carrying case and they are much easier to sleep in. I should sell the QC15s.
- All-clad pan - yeah, great.
- Inov-8 230s - still great, I own these in various colours and wear them 95%+ of the time. I have a jet black pair I wear to the office every day.
- Quest bars - Meh. I got sick of the taste pretty quickly, I'd rather drink protein shakes or just eat Clif if I need something in bar form.
- Anker chargers - I picked up a couple of these with the 4 inch amazon brand cables, pretty handy to have around.
New stuff
- I spent quite a lot on Sennheiser HD600s and an AMP/DAC, which are great but I haven't used a ton.
- I bought this mat to use with my standing desk, it's great.
- These Lodge pan scrapers are surprisingly useful.
- I'm getting a lot of enjoyment from Spotify, Netflix and Audible recently. All super standard but all very slick services.
- Lastly, Joby Magnetic Gorillapod
Of recent purchases this is likely the thing that I'm most happy with. I'm currently working remotely with a coach/physio and it means I have to take a ton of video of various exercises for the two of us to review. In the past I'd have just put the phone on the floor and got crappy video whereas now I can just stick it to anything in the gym. It's a niche thing for sure but it does exactly what I need it to very well, and if you have similar needs I'd strongly recommend picking this up.
- My next large purchase will likely be a beefed up computer and the consumer version of the Oculus Rift in early 2016.
In conclusion, nothing too interesting from me, so what have you bought that has given you pleasure? I'm expecting to see a ton of Anova posts!
Edit - guys, please include pics and links in your posts!
Last edited by Yeti; 08-19-2015 at 02:13 AM.
08-19-2015
, 12:51 AM
08-19-2015
, 12:56 AM
08-19-2015
, 01:32 AM
Bought some sweet kicks like an hour ago.
08-19-2015
, 04:04 AM
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...rch_detailpage
Makes sauces and soups super smooth and awesome. Can crush ice like it's no big deal.
Makes sauces and soups super smooth and awesome. Can crush ice like it's no big deal.
![[Phill]'s Avatar](https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/customavatars/avatar10430_44.gif){kind=avatar}
08-19-2015
, 01:25 PM
08-19-2015
, 03:14 PM
08-19-2015
, 03:21 PM
08-19-2015
, 04:22 PM
08-19-2015
, 05:07 PM
08-19-2015
, 06:04 PM
Went through my 2014/2015 Amazon Order history (250+ orders) and a few other sources and here were the things that stood out. Long list incoming, apologies. I've also included some stuff that I didn't like, but might be interesting for someone else.
Best/Favorite:
Spyderco Triangle Knife Sharpener
This has been the easiest device I found that seriously sharpens everything. The included video (can be found on youtube) is like 90s quality but is a great demonstration of how to sharpen things from knives (w/ and w/o serrations) to chisels, scissors, fish hooks... pretty much anything you might want to sharpen. I sharpened everything in my apt with this and I was actually kind of bummed by how easy it was and how quickly I got through everything.
Anova Sous Vide (old version)
Plenty of talk about sous vide in the "cooking a good everything else" thread and when they launched the new version and had this one for $99 I couldn't help but bite. This was the purchase my fiance was probably the most skeptical of in terms of how much I would use it and how much of a difference it would make, but now she is def a sous vide believer.
Bedtime Bliss Eyemask
A must with the amount of light my apartment gets. Super simple eye mask, this dude is probably making a killing on private labeling. If you need more than one, do not buy 2 together as you will get a coupon for 40% off your 2nd order with your first order. So order 1, wait, order the 2nd with the coupon.
Instant Pot DUO60 6Qt Pressure Cooker
Kenji writes a new pressure cooker recipe like once a week and they're all phenomenal. This thing pressure cooks, slow cooks, sautes, makes soups, makes stews, makes rice, makes yougurt, etc. Awesome device to have and I got it around black friday for about $99 I think.
Vermont Smoke & Cure - Smoked Pepperoni
Bought myself this as a present (after it won best pepperoni in Kenji's taste testing) along with the summer sausages because they didn't need refrigeration. The pepperoni was super good, and I will buy myself the 5 pack next time there is a reason to. Summer sausage wasn't my thing due to the sour flavor from the acid, but others might like it.
Thymes Frasier Fir Candle
This candle smells so ****ing good I couldn't stand it. Smells like everything Christmas should with a hint of sweetness. We gave them as gifts and everyone raved about them, we even bought the soap. Just writing about it now makes me want to buy more, but I'm going to refrain and buy some on small business Saturday this year.
The Good:
Dried, single location, non-gmo garbanzos, 5LB
Had read that these make great hummus and that is definitely true. Great price for 5lbs, comes with a cool burlap bag. Easy to rehydrate with my Instapot.
Chain Weight Belt for Dips & Pull Ups
Got this for my bday which allows me to add kettlebell weights for my pull ups. Used to use one of these in the gym but now that I do everything at home it was the one thing I was missing.
2LB organic toasted sesame seeds
Use these for Sesame bread from Josey Baker Bread book (PM me if u want the recipe), as well as making my own Tahini for hummus. Also nice on stir fried beans and other dishes.
Peter Pauper Press Notecards
This company makes beautiful stationary and notecards at affordable prices. I have been sending a lot of handwritten cards lately and I get a lot of feedback on these cards. Some favorites in particular (link, link, link)
Lodge Pre-seasoned Cast Iron Chef's Skillet 10"
This thing will last forever, great for pretty much everything, love that it can go right in the oven for finishing (or starting) chicken, making cornbread, right in the broiler for skillet pizzas etc.
The Ringer Chainmail for cleaning cast iron
This was one of the most highly recommended ways to clean cast iron (the lodge scraper yeti mentions is up there too). Works really well.
Orange Lacrosse Ball
Spend 5 minutes in the H&F forum and you'll find someone talking about taking a lax ball to their trigger points. Anytime I fly this is always in my carry on as it's inevitable my back or hamstrings will tense up. Great for self back massage
Rules For My Unborn Son
My go to gift whenever anyone is having a boy. Fun book to read and I have a bunch of copies, usually bought from Good Will. If we don't know it's a boy until after the birth, fiance takes a postit note and changes it to "Rules for my <NEW>born Son"
What If? Scientific Answers to Ridiculous Hyptotheticals
XKCD creator Randall Monroe's book to accompany his spinoff website. A really entertaining read and also a good gift for geeks and science teachers.
Antimo Caputo 00 Chef's Flour 10kg
A great high gluten flour for bread and pizza dough. Was about $10 cheaper when I bought it though.
Aerolatte
No way this is better than a steam frother, but definitely cheaper. Makes good milk foam for coffee drinks and doubles for a quick wisk for low viscosity mixtures.
Tiny Currency Inspecting Microscope
Bought two of these for $3/ea. Cool to play around with, check edges on my knives, the blacklight is fun to mess with - who knew every credit card has a blacklight responsive seal somewhere on it.
Ninja Ultima Blender
To one up gobbo on this for the second time on 2p2 on the blender topic! Not quite a blendtec or a vitamix but after coupons and stuff on staples I got this for maybe $20 OOP. Love this thing
Dell 10w Wall Adapter
When I sold my Venue tablet this was the thing that made me the saddest. The 10W throughput charged all my electronics about 2x faster than any other adapter I had. Just bought a replacement from Dell for $5 last week.
Platinum Preppy Extra Fine
Really solid $4 fountain pen. Nib is surprisingly smooth and with the eyedropper mod I am able to use whatever ink I want. Nice fountain pen in an everyday setting that I don't mind if I damage or lose.
Morning Glory Mach 3 0.38
Bought one of these as a filler at jetpens to get my order over $25 for free shipping and it has become one of my favorite pens for my day log / to-do list. Super fine and doesn't bleed so I can write on both sides of the page.
Ashland Leather Key Cover
Simple, gorgeous key cover that holds 3 keys. Not for you if you have a car I guess but since all I have are 3 keys anyway it's a really nice design and the leather and the colors are beautiful. I love that the leather ages and takes on shapes so it becomes more and more personalized.
The Bad:
Lifeline Jungle Gym XT
This was highly recommended on SlickDeals but like every fitness item I've ever purchased other than my chinup bar, I never use it. It's pretty awkward to use in a door frame - if I had my own place and could mount this to the ceiling I would use it a lot more.
Magnetic Ironing Mat
I don't see how these work for dress shirts. Was trying to not have to buy an ironing board. Major fail on my part.
Kinkajou Bottle Cutter
Loved the idea - hard to execute consistently, abandoned after about 10 bottles.
F.A. Seeds Pocket Knife & Hunting Kit
Stones and oils are cheap quality. This is my fault, should have known at the price point.
To Be Determined:
Allen Edmonds Lexington Cap Toe Black
Needed new dress shoes, haven't had a chance to wear them yet.
Dell U3415W
Crazy good deal on this on Monday, couldn't help myself. Curved 34" Monitor! Arrives Friday. Hopefully do not regret.
Best/Favorite:
Spyderco Triangle Knife Sharpener
This has been the easiest device I found that seriously sharpens everything. The included video (can be found on youtube) is like 90s quality but is a great demonstration of how to sharpen things from knives (w/ and w/o serrations) to chisels, scissors, fish hooks... pretty much anything you might want to sharpen. I sharpened everything in my apt with this and I was actually kind of bummed by how easy it was and how quickly I got through everything.
Anova Sous Vide (old version)
Plenty of talk about sous vide in the "cooking a good everything else" thread and when they launched the new version and had this one for $99 I couldn't help but bite. This was the purchase my fiance was probably the most skeptical of in terms of how much I would use it and how much of a difference it would make, but now she is def a sous vide believer.
Bedtime Bliss Eyemask
A must with the amount of light my apartment gets. Super simple eye mask, this dude is probably making a killing on private labeling. If you need more than one, do not buy 2 together as you will get a coupon for 40% off your 2nd order with your first order. So order 1, wait, order the 2nd with the coupon.
Instant Pot DUO60 6Qt Pressure Cooker
Kenji writes a new pressure cooker recipe like once a week and they're all phenomenal. This thing pressure cooks, slow cooks, sautes, makes soups, makes stews, makes rice, makes yougurt, etc. Awesome device to have and I got it around black friday for about $99 I think.
Vermont Smoke & Cure - Smoked Pepperoni
Bought myself this as a present (after it won best pepperoni in Kenji's taste testing) along with the summer sausages because they didn't need refrigeration. The pepperoni was super good, and I will buy myself the 5 pack next time there is a reason to. Summer sausage wasn't my thing due to the sour flavor from the acid, but others might like it.
Thymes Frasier Fir Candle
This candle smells so ****ing good I couldn't stand it. Smells like everything Christmas should with a hint of sweetness. We gave them as gifts and everyone raved about them, we even bought the soap. Just writing about it now makes me want to buy more, but I'm going to refrain and buy some on small business Saturday this year.
The Good:
Dried, single location, non-gmo garbanzos, 5LB
Had read that these make great hummus and that is definitely true. Great price for 5lbs, comes with a cool burlap bag. Easy to rehydrate with my Instapot.
Chain Weight Belt for Dips & Pull Ups
Got this for my bday which allows me to add kettlebell weights for my pull ups. Used to use one of these in the gym but now that I do everything at home it was the one thing I was missing.
2LB organic toasted sesame seeds
Use these for Sesame bread from Josey Baker Bread book (PM me if u want the recipe), as well as making my own Tahini for hummus. Also nice on stir fried beans and other dishes.
Peter Pauper Press Notecards
This company makes beautiful stationary and notecards at affordable prices. I have been sending a lot of handwritten cards lately and I get a lot of feedback on these cards. Some favorites in particular (link, link, link)
Lodge Pre-seasoned Cast Iron Chef's Skillet 10"
This thing will last forever, great for pretty much everything, love that it can go right in the oven for finishing (or starting) chicken, making cornbread, right in the broiler for skillet pizzas etc.
The Ringer Chainmail for cleaning cast iron
This was one of the most highly recommended ways to clean cast iron (the lodge scraper yeti mentions is up there too). Works really well.
Orange Lacrosse Ball
Spend 5 minutes in the H&F forum and you'll find someone talking about taking a lax ball to their trigger points. Anytime I fly this is always in my carry on as it's inevitable my back or hamstrings will tense up. Great for self back massage
Rules For My Unborn Son
My go to gift whenever anyone is having a boy. Fun book to read and I have a bunch of copies, usually bought from Good Will. If we don't know it's a boy until after the birth, fiance takes a postit note and changes it to "Rules for my <NEW>born Son"
What If? Scientific Answers to Ridiculous Hyptotheticals
XKCD creator Randall Monroe's book to accompany his spinoff website. A really entertaining read and also a good gift for geeks and science teachers.
Antimo Caputo 00 Chef's Flour 10kg
A great high gluten flour for bread and pizza dough. Was about $10 cheaper when I bought it though.
Aerolatte
No way this is better than a steam frother, but definitely cheaper. Makes good milk foam for coffee drinks and doubles for a quick wisk for low viscosity mixtures.
Tiny Currency Inspecting Microscope
Bought two of these for $3/ea. Cool to play around with, check edges on my knives, the blacklight is fun to mess with - who knew every credit card has a blacklight responsive seal somewhere on it.
Ninja Ultima Blender
To one up gobbo on this for the second time on 2p2 on the blender topic! Not quite a blendtec or a vitamix but after coupons and stuff on staples I got this for maybe $20 OOP. Love this thing
Dell 10w Wall Adapter
When I sold my Venue tablet this was the thing that made me the saddest. The 10W throughput charged all my electronics about 2x faster than any other adapter I had. Just bought a replacement from Dell for $5 last week.
Platinum Preppy Extra Fine
Really solid $4 fountain pen. Nib is surprisingly smooth and with the eyedropper mod I am able to use whatever ink I want. Nice fountain pen in an everyday setting that I don't mind if I damage or lose.
Morning Glory Mach 3 0.38
Bought one of these as a filler at jetpens to get my order over $25 for free shipping and it has become one of my favorite pens for my day log / to-do list. Super fine and doesn't bleed so I can write on both sides of the page.
Ashland Leather Key Cover
Simple, gorgeous key cover that holds 3 keys. Not for you if you have a car I guess but since all I have are 3 keys anyway it's a really nice design and the leather and the colors are beautiful. I love that the leather ages and takes on shapes so it becomes more and more personalized.
The Bad:
Lifeline Jungle Gym XT
This was highly recommended on SlickDeals but like every fitness item I've ever purchased other than my chinup bar, I never use it. It's pretty awkward to use in a door frame - if I had my own place and could mount this to the ceiling I would use it a lot more.
Magnetic Ironing Mat
I don't see how these work for dress shirts. Was trying to not have to buy an ironing board. Major fail on my part.
Kinkajou Bottle Cutter
Loved the idea - hard to execute consistently, abandoned after about 10 bottles.
F.A. Seeds Pocket Knife & Hunting Kit
Stones and oils are cheap quality. This is my fault, should have known at the price point.
To Be Determined:
Allen Edmonds Lexington Cap Toe Black
Needed new dress shoes, haven't had a chance to wear them yet.
Dell U3415W
Crazy good deal on this on Monday, couldn't help myself. Curved 34" Monitor! Arrives Friday. Hopefully do not regret.
08-20-2015
, 01:17 AM
