Mission Belt Canvas Ratchet Belt

Armdog

Every once in a while, you just happen to stumble onto some new knowledge that makes a huge impact on your day-to-day life. Finding out about ratchet belts was one of those “lightbulb on” moments for me. I’ve long struggled with belts and sizing, even going as far as buying a leather punch to add intermediate holes to older belts. One day, my brother-in-law happened to mention his discovery of Mission Belt’s ratchet system. I did some browsing, finding a previously unknown world of ratchet belts online. I decided, based…

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Cinnamon Nature Valley Crunchy Granola Bars

Armdog

I’m generally a fan of Nature Valley’s crunchy granola bars. I switch between peanut butter, maple, and oats and honey periodically, but it’s often my go-to choice for an easy breakfast along with my morning coffee. Probably not the healthiest thing in the world to eat everyday, but it does the job of being easy to transport and tiding me over until lunch. In my attempt to save some money and buy in bulk, I was looking for these online and stumbled across the cinnamon variety. I’d never seen this…

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FlipBelt Zipper Running Belt

Armdog

Have you ever considered buying a fanny pack for running, but avoiding doing so because of how the look (and what people might think of you)? I definitely have. The thought actually crossed my mind enough to compel me to start researching “fanny packs that don’t look like fanny packs.” One result I came across was the FlipBelt, which apparently many people rave about online. It comes in several flavors, including the base model and one with a central zipper compartment. There are also so “pro” versions that don’t seem…

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Amazon Buttoned Down Classic Fit Dress Shirt

Armdog

Months ago, I was in the market to stock up on dress shirts. First, I searched around for my usual go-to dress shirt brands Croft & Barrow, J Crew, and Van Heusen. I bounced to the usual retailer sites, but couldn’t really find any good deals. Eventually, I found myself on Amazon browsing through what was on offer there. I came across Amazon’s “Buttoned Down” brand of dress clothes, and was immediately drawn in by the massive selection, size variety, and bizarrely sporadic prices. My preferred dress shirt size, 16.5…

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Tommy Hilfiger Performance Bomber Jacket

Armdog

About 10 years ago, I had a jacket that I absolutely loved that has long since been discontinued. It was a four pocket, medium thickness, vaguely bomber/military style jacket that was mostly a polyester outer shell with some cotton styling around the collar, sleeves, and bottom. Somewhat recently, I went on a quest to find something comparable. I tried quite a few jackets, and eventually found the perfect replacement – Tommy Hilfiger’s Performance Bomber Jacket. It’s actually such a good match, I bought both the filled (thicker coat style) and…

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Hanes Men’s Sweatpants

Armdog

Recently, I decided to start sharing clothing reviews on on this site in addition to the game, gadgets, and other items. As with the other items, I think I have a unique perspective I can provide, as someone who sometimes struggles to find a good fit. Given all the staying at home we’re doing, I couldn’t think of a better first clothing review than a nice pair of sweat pants! My number one criteria during my sweatpants search a couple months ago was comfort. Along those comfort lines, I also…

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Lamicall Flexible Arm Gooseneck Phone Mount

Armdog

As I’ve mentioned in a few other reviews, my primary hobby is drawing colored pencil portraits. For years, I shared still images looped together as .gif files to show drawing progressions. Eventually, I decided to get with the times and created a YouTube channel to share these progressions through video instead. Figuring out how to capture artwork video has been a learning process; at the start, I purchased a fairly basic smartphone tripod which I reviewed previously. It worked well, but wasn’t designed for any sort of overhead view. My…

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Nogent Super Kim Can Opener

Armdog

If you spend some time browsing through Amazon reviews for the most popular can openers, you might be surprised to discover there is apparently an ongoing crisis in the world of can openers. With most product types, after enough digging, you can usually separate the high-quality products from the problematic ones. From reviews for can openers though, it sounds like within the last decade, the reputable manufacturers have been acquired by other companies or cut costs to a degree that has impacted quality. I hadn’t considered this until we purchased…

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Maileg Mouse in a Box

Armdog

Not long ago, my sister bought one of my kids a Maileg Matchbox Mouse. This was a surprisingly big hit at that year’s Christmas. Due to limited stock, we’ve had to substitute a similar item at times for the kids (Foothill Toys Matchbox Mouse). Both the Maileg and Foothill versions basically consist of a little toy mouse with a matchbook bed; they come with a pillow, blanket, and a mattress. The Maileg mice are a bit smaller and look slightly different, but otherwise, they are fairly similar at a basic…

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Steam Controller

Armdog

Right off the top: This is probably going to be a frustrating review to read. The reason is that I’m going to review the somewhat recently discontinued Steam Controller by Valve. So, yeah…reviewing something that is hard to buy now is one thing. But the other frustrating thing is that the Steam Controller is amazing. In fact, for me, it’s actually so good that it’s an indispensable part of my gaming set up. There are some games that I simply won’t play without it. Like so many people, I spend…

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