Herculodge

Should I Sell the Seiko SBDC051?

I love the Seiko SBDC051, but since I've got the Captain Willard, it's hard to find wrist time for it. I wonder if I should sell the 051. 

Wrist Shots of the Seiko Captain Willard SBDC109

Would the Seiko Captain Willard SBDC109 at 42.5mm across and 46.5mm lug to lug play big enough on a 6 foot man who's 220 pounds with 8-inch wrists. I'm relieved and happy to say yes it is. This is my most satisfying watch purchase in 15 years of collecting:

My Daughters Want Fat Dad over Disciplined Dad

Confronting the Disintegration of a Personality

Below, the 2003 photo in which I have given up all dignity for the pleasures of reptilian self-indulgence and a more recent photo evidencing a man who let pride and discipline take hold of the reigns:

The Secret Archives of Fat Daddy Exposed

During the pandemic, my daughters, Julia and Natalie, uncovered some archived photos of me in 2003 on my wife’s computer, and they’re not flattering photos. In fact, they are shameful. 

Disintegrating Personality

In the photo, I weigh over 250, my face is huge, and honestly the images make me cringe with the thought: “There is the disintegration of a human being right there,” I say out loud. “This someone who’s lost his way. This is someone whose soul is wasting away in his personal hell of self-indulgence.” 

Not surprisingly, the one photo that creates the most shame and self-disgust is the one my daughters love most of all. 

Empty Popcorn Bucket, Melted Chocolate, Lizard Eyes

It’s me sitting on the living room couch. There is this empty popcorn bowl next me. Why is it empty? Because I just finished it. 

But the real disgust of the photo is that my chin and my hands are covered with melted chocolate because I had tossed chocolate kisses over the freshly popped popcorn and the chocolate had melted all over and it was smeared all over me. I have what appears to be a thick chocolate beard on my face and my hands are covered with chocolate gloves.

But we’re not even done with this image of self-abasement: 

Not only am I fat with a huge face and chocolate all over my face and hands; my eyes are half closed, and I have that dumb-grinned, sleepy look relief and self-indulgence you experience when you just ate a bucket of popcorn slathered with melted chocolate and something very specific happens to your eyes when you indulge like this. 

I call it Lizard Eyes. If you’re not familiar with Lizard Eyes, it's the glazed over effect with the eyes half shut. You’ve essentially lost your humanity and become a lizard. 

So I’ve got the Lizard Eyes thing going. So I’ve lost my humanity, and I’ve become a fat, overfed reptile, and I hate it.

Bad Role Model, Image to Run From for 17 Years

So two points about that fat reptile: 

One, this image is not a good role model for my daughters. 

Two, the photograph is an image of shame I’ve been running away from for over 17 years.

I’ve spent the last 17 years running away from the image of myself. I’ve tried to incorporate health-consciousness, self-awareness, mindfulness, and discipline in my eating practices, and I had hoped this would set a good example for my daughters. 

Conflict between Daughters and Me: Discipline Vs. Fat Daddy

• I wanted to be a good role model.
• I wanted to be Discipline Daddy. 
• But get this: My daughters won’t know part of Discipline Daddy.
• They want Lizard Eye Daddy, this Mythical Fat Daddy Creature.

My daughters are enchanted with this mythical Fat Father whose bloated countenance they gawk at every night on my wife’s computer. It’s all they talk about. Every night before they go to bed, they go into their mom’s computer and look up the photo archives and they look with both amazement and affection at Lizard Eye Daddy, and they beg me to become him again.

It’s a nightmare.

What is the appeal?

I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out why my daughters are so enamored by Lizard Eye Daddy, and so I asked them:

Natalie says, “Because it looks like you’re so much fun, having a good time. You look so happy.”

“Happy?” I've lost my humanity. I’ve become a Fat Reptile.

We can’t come to an agreement either. I try to explain to them the psychological breakdown reflected in Lizard Eye Daddy and the moral superiority of Discipline Daddy, but my daughters will have no part of it. 

They want the Lizard, and this conflict in the family has no end in sight. 

That’s where my life is at right now. I hope you guys are doing well. 

 

Commanding Wrist Presence of the Citizen CC3067-88E GPS Satellite Eco-Drive

I'm loving the color, orange accents, and overall wrist presence of the Citizen CC3067-88E, part of the Promaster Land series. I'm still missing the stainless steel version, which comes on rubber, and I suspect I'll rebuy that model.

The contrast of the large Arabic numerals and the charcoal black dial is stunning.

To set, you need to be in the outdoors or by a window. It may take a few minutes or so for the watch to read the GPS. 

The Reese's Peanut Butter Cup crown digs a tad, but not a deal-breaker. I have no links removed for my 8-inch wrist, but may remove one and adjust micro for a slightly tighter fit, which may reduce the crown friction on my hand.

I love the military watch theme. It reminds me of a watch one of the security team would be wearing from the Netflix Norwegian TV thriller Occupied. 

The open dial style makes the 44.3mm bezel play bigger than it is. I'd say this watch plays more like a 47mm.

Are You Re-Buying the Citizen Promaster CC3060-10E for 2020?

I have to confess with chagrin that I'm missing selling my CC3060-10E. I've sold it twice. What was I thinking? I have a Strapcode Hexad 22mm in my watch box that I could fit on it. The photos below show it with the Strapcode Endmill:

Is My Romance with Mechanical Watches Coming to an End?

I currently own 4 very stunning mechanical watches: Seiko SBDC067 Coral Monster, SBDC065 Cyan Blue Diver and shown below, the Seiko SBDC051 Black Dial Diver and SBDC053 Blue Dial Diver. I'm considering unloading my automatics and replacing the solar models, most likely Eco-Drives. I'm leaning toward "Precision Instruments." I am tiring of the setting of automatic watches and all the fussing. Could the romance be ending?

 

Possible Faulty AGC on Gary's Refurbished PR-D4W

Giving an update of his previous post about the Sangean PR-D4W, Gary writes:

Sadly, my refurbished PR-D4W only worked well for a little over one day. Now, medium strength and weaker AM stations have a greatly reduced audio level. Before, they sounded fine. It seems like the AGC is faulty. For example, KFI 640 is loud and clear on both the PR-D4W and the PR-D5. KABC 790 is loud and clear on the PR-D5, but has a very low audio level on the PR-D4W. Also, it seems like the AM auto tracking isn't working properly anymore, except maybe on strong stations.

Something in the DSP circuitry has probably gone awry, causing these two issues. Oh well. It was worth a try. Back it goes. No more Sangean "certified refurbished" radios for me.

Seiko Going for Striking Blue Dials for 2018/2019

Take the Watch Addiction Questionnaire to See If You Need to Go to Rehab

 

Watch guys, how is the hobby going? Has it taken a turn for the worse? Or is your watch hobby making you happy? Take the Watch-Addiction Questionnaire to see if you need watch rehab. If you answer yes to 10 or more of the following, you may need an intervention.

 

1. Do you find yourself thinking about watches first thing in the morning and last thing while in bed at night, and it’s reached the point that you resent the amount of time, energy, and money your watch addiction is taking from your life?
2. Do you keep a list of your watches and assign days for which watches you will wear during the week with the hope that adhering to this rotation will make your life feel more manageable but to the contrary your life constantly feels chaotic and out of control?
3. Do you agonize over which watch you wear during the day and regardless of your choice you feel the agony of having picked the wrong watch?
4. Do you find you’ve amassed more watches than you have the time or occasion to wear and fret that you’re constantly neglecting prized watches in your collection?
5. Do you find yourself falling in love with a watch, buying the said watch, falling out of love with it, selling it, falling in love with it again, rebuying it, falling out of love with it again, and repeating this cycle over and over so that you feel like you’re living out the movie Groundhog Day?
6. Do you find yourself possessed with the urge to shrink your collection to a small manageable collection, find yourself reaching your goal, but then you go on a buying spree so that your collection mushrooms to an unmanageable number again? And you go through this cycle of shrinking and expanding your collection over and over so that you feel like you’re living out the movie Groundhog Day?
7. Do you tell yourself just one more watch and then the madness will be over because I’ve finally found the Holy Grail that will cure me of my disease? Only to go back on the watch hunt soon after so that you’re constantly stuck in a cesspool of desire and discontent?
8. Do you go on the Internet and observe Youtubers engage in ceremonious unboxings of their Holy Grail timepieces and watching them enjoy their new watch overcomes you with envy and anxiety so that you feel you need to get on the watch-buying bandwagon?
9. Do you deep down have the conviction that if you sold all your watches and just kept just one watch, a cheap $80 Casio or Timex, you’d be happier and less tormented, but you refuse to act on your convictions because you choose to be a slave to your watch addiction?
10. Do you fear that if you were liberated from your watch addiction you’d have to face a new crisis: the abyss of an empty life and the loneliness that such an empty life entails?
11. Do you fear that your watch addiction is a distraction from personal problems that you find too overwhelming to address and that you’d rather slog through your watch addiction, with all its aforementioned repetitive cycles than confront deeper emotional problems?
12. Do you get defensive when people say you have a watch problem? And you find yourself rationalizing your addiction by saying that your watch hobby is harmless and fun and that you could be engaging in far more self-destructive pastimes? But deep down you know they have a good point?
13. Do you find that your watch hobby was supposed to make you happy but your obsession has taken you to a dark place that has nothing to do with happiness but has everything to do with torment and despair?
14. Do you find yourself asking advice from other watch addicts about which watches to buy and you experience the shame of having no deep personal convictions so that you’re dependent on others for your life choices and validation?
15. Do you find yourself trying to hide your watch obsession from your significant other, worried that she will become suspicious of all the FedEx packages that are arriving at your doorstep and perhaps engage in a forensics accounting investigation of your watch buying habits, which will reveal you to be recklessly wasteful with your finances and committing the sin of adulterous consumerism?

Amazon Selling Certified Refurbished Sangean PR-D4W for $47

 

 

 

Thanks, Gary:

 

I noticed Amazon has Certified Refurbished PR-D4W radios for sale directly from Sangean America for about $47, so I bought one. I've been watching lots of PR-D4W reviews on YouTube, including yours from three years ago.

 

It's not a perfect radio, but it seems to offer AM reception as good as the PR-D5, FM reception better than the PR-D5, and doesn't have the muffled sound of the PR-D5 and PR-D15. I think it will sound clear, more like my small PR-D7, but it will have far better AM and FM reception than the latter. (My favorite portable for both AM and FM sound quality 

is still the CCRadio-SW. Most others pale in comparison.)

 

I like that the PR-D4W uses four batteries (D cells), rather than the six that the PR-D5 (C cells) and PR-D7 (AA cells) take. With the latter two, I use AA rechargeable batteries, charged externally (even though the PR-D7 can charge internally, it's not optimal to do this). With the PR-D5 I put the NiMH AA batteries in C cell adapters. With the PR-D4W I'll use Eneloop NiMH AA batteries in D cell adapters.

 

I'm not too keen on the polished black finish of the PR-D4W. Polished white or pebble grain black would be better. I also don't like that the display changes from frequency to clock after ten seconds. I think the CCRadio-2E does this also (should be an optional feature on both radios). When on, I'd rather that a radio show the frequency continuously, like the PR-D5 and PR-D7 do. Also, a handle would be nice, on the PR-D4W and on the other two.

 

I do like that the PR-D4W has multiple AM and FM bandwidth filters, a signal strength meter, and weather band coverage, all of which are lacking on the PR-D5 and PR-D7.

 

Anyway, I hope it works okay. Being refurbished by Sangean gives me some confidence. If it doesn't work as well on AM and better on FM than the PR-D5, as Jay Allen implies it should, I can always return it. In my experience, there is still a lot of sample to sample variation in radio performance.

 

-Gary