Goodbye 2021

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This year involved me being "just done" with certain things.

Just done (sort of?): Guitars

The most guitars I ever owned in my life was 7. It's now down to 3. Two are fully functional (my two '89 Squier Strats) and one is the non-functional '93 Fender USA Stratocaster which I will someday put back together.

The 4th Strat will arrive in January '22, a new SX Hawk for reasons I said before, and hopefully that will be a good one.

While variety is the spice of life, Strats just work and that's why I went back to them. I actually tried to do this with a Fender back in August, but it just didn't feel right no matter how I adjusted it - never mind the fact I had to play 5 of the things just to find one that didn't have issues.

Just done: Watches

Casio W218. I bought one with a fabric strap, didn't like the strap, bought a resin strap version, liked it, and then bought a second one a week later. I liked it that much that I got a backup. Both were just a hair over $16 each. The cost is $16 to $20 at the time I write this.

The W218 display does not have LCD washout, the night light is great, it's very light and very legible. It also looks G-SHOCK like in appearance. Can't beat that for the price it sells for.

Just done: GPS

New in the barn this year is the Garmin Drive 52. Prior to that I tried the Garmin DriveSmart 55... twice. It was a mistake both times because that unit just runs too hot.

I should have bought the 52 in the first place, as that is the last old school Garmin that exists. It uses the older style USB power port, has a matte screen for minimal glare and just works great.

I've got a bunch of Garmin GPSes in my possession, and my favorite is the nuvi 2599. Big fonts including big highway exit numbers, the fastest of all that I own... great unit. However, it lacks one thing the 52 has, which is a Turns list that shows on the map while navigating. I do own the DriveSmart 50LMTHD which does have that feature, but the no-go for that is that the highway exit number display is tiny, making it almost unusable.

The Drive 52, while not having fonts as large as the 2599, is legible. Moreover, all annoyances can be disabled easily. I'm specifically speaking of notifications for school zones, curves, railroad crossings, and so on. All that crap can be disabled and you can just drive without the thing bleeping and blooping at you constantly.

Here is an image to better explain what I mean. Drive 52 first, nuvi 2599 second, DriveSmart 50LMTHD third:

The 52 has bigger fonts where it counts, and is the most legible of the three.

There is the DriveSmart 66. Nice, but I can't use it. It has a new mount style and USB-C is required. This means my existing mount and all my Garmin cords (including the ones with traffic data reception) can't be used with it. But I can use all my older stuff with the 52, hence why I got it. It's like the 55 but in a matte screen and doesn't run hot. It works.

Looking to the future...

I'm considering doing a live stream on YouTube. I've had the ability to do that for a while now but have never tried it.

If I do decide to go for it, I'll definitely need a headset with mic and a new webcam. And I'll have to spend some good coin on the headset because I need the type with the big cups. It also has to be wired because worrying about batteries just to use a headset is stupid.

This is my last entry for 2021. You'll see the next in 2022. Hopefully, '22 will be a great year.

Published 2021 Dec 30