Tuesday, November 11, 2014

ten year watch and review


TEN YEAR WATCH AND REVIEW

I know I don’t get out much, but even so it was pretty embarrassing when I found out that self-winding watches had been around since the 1920’s and I was just now becoming aware of them as a neat post-apocalypse time piece.  I was so far behind the times, the Chinese were already coming out with them.  So, I bought one after I got all persnickety with Wal-Mart and their crappy replaceable watch batteries that didn’t even last half the time of the original.  I’d show them, by golly, and never buy another battery from those bastards again!  Well, as expected, the Chinese watch wasn’t all that great-even at $25 which was half the brand name self-winders.  The crystal cracked after just a few months.  Alas, I’m not complaining.  The watch showed me what it could do, or not do.  You do have to reset to the correct time at least once a week, if not two.  And if you skip a day wearing it, you have to reset and wind it manually.  No big deal.  But, at work in a modern setting, it kind of blows.  I had to keep asking anyone with a cell phone for the Atomic Time ( it was that, or call time and temperature and listen to the phone companies self-congratulatory advertising ), a standard no one can argue with ( my watch says you should be open now!  My watch, correctly showing the official US Government Colorado Atomic Clock time, shows you got two more minutes ). 

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You know what I’m talking about.  We are all watching the clock, checking it a hundred times a day.  Mostly at work.  When to start, all those deadlines ( I have small windows of pick-up times for a lot of my donations ).  A watch that is within a minute or two in the morning and then loses another minute or two during the day just ain’t gonna cut it.  In a less fast paced environment, okay.  If I was just doing paperwork all day and the office clock told me when to quick, no problem.  But when we are all doing one and a half jobs, when every position left is your job PLUS the job they never filled, and you need to get twelve hours of work done in eight, time is a bit more critical.  I had to go back to a quartz movement battery powered watch.  I placed the self-winding watch in storage and got myself a Casio watch for $20 ( Wal-Mart.  I know, but it has got to be less profit than their batteries ).  I was just looking at a replacement Timex-too expensive- and there it was!  Advertised as a Ten Year Battery!  I was so happy, let me tell you.  A watch that won’t last as long as its battery.  Normally a bad thing, right?  But to me, a trouble free accurate watch that costs two or three bucks a year and lasts five to eight years ( assuming I scratch the crystal so bad I can barely read the time anymore ) is great.  It is like a pair of pants that lasts three years instead of one.  You know you are going to have to get another one eventually, but it’s nice to hold off as long as possible.  Plus, the longer the battery lasts, the longer you have a watch into the Apocalypse.

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REVIEW: WORLD GONE WILD

World Gone Wild by David Moore is the big ass coffee table book that covers every post-apocalypse movie out there.  The book is splendid looking, and I have no regrets spending $30 on it ( it took up two near complete days of reading ).  However, I do NOT recommend it for my minions.  If you are a behind the scenes movie geek with too much money, sure, go for it.  But for the rest of you, this is NOT a survivalist movie book review.  A post-apocalypse movie is anything to do with life ending as we know it, the breakdown of law and order, a dysfunctional future.  A survivalist movie is a totally different animal.  It takes place when the societies infrastructure collapses and no outside one takes its place.  Thus, movies that depict a collapse with still functioning government, even weak, is not really a survivalist movie.  You have to have a Dark Ages lack of trade.  So not many movies called post-apocalypse are realistic insofar as how society is going to function.  This book judges movies on how well they are made, not how well they depict survivalists in a complete collapse, a die-off.  So, while reviewing movies here was great, a first rate job, they most likely are not the kinds of movies you want to see about The Collapse.  Logun’s Run is in here, to give you one example.  A wonderful book, but most likely inappropriate for Redneck Trailer Trash Survivalists.

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6 comments:

  1. I am happy to have reached the point in my life where I usually don't need to know the exact time. In fact, often it's not all that important that I know the day of the week. I have lost track and it didn't matter.

    Good thing too as wrist watches rarely lasted 3 days on me. I could get a couple weeks or even months out of pocket watches. Good thing my computer has the time and date as it's how I usually keep track.

    Guess I'll just have to stay home rather than engage in precisely timed military operations. Oh well.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Course, precise military operations are usually dangerous for all but the general staff and are best avoided.

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  2. About 4 years ago, I picked up a Swiss army self winding for $160 in my separated from wife splurge. Keeps good time. Never needed adjustment. Can't wait to take it off and never worry about time again. Probably be buried with it...

    Gil

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    Replies
    1. For this Separated From Herself splurge, I rented two nights of DVD's for $3. I should probably rethink my upper limit on what I'm worth.

      Delete
  3. Haven't worn a watch since the 80's and don't expect I ever will. Nobody gets to divide my life up into minutes. Like the other guy, I rarely know what day of the week it is and don't really care. All that unnecessary bullshit is for slaves and I'll have none of it.

    Time - the only thing you really have, yet most give it away so cheaply.

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    Replies
    1. Us wage slaves are well fed on GMO corn derivatives and well entertained with the now new all football all the time NFL channel.

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