#i like sleek and simple designs with knives

[technicolorxsn]

current collection

#in chronological order from left to right btw #first one was a gift from my ex and the first knife ive ever had #i might just be harsh on it bc it was from her but it does not stay sharp at all it is always dull no matter how much u sharpen it #but its fast and easy to use #the second was a gift from my dad that he got from work #very sharp but very slow #its nice though #and the last one i got recently so i dont rly know yet! #its a little slower than the first and instead of having any lock mechanism it just kinda resists hard when the blade is right by the sheath #which is kinda annoying but whatever #the section outside the sheath is also a lot smaller so its hard to use one handed #esp since its a hole instead of uh #cant remember the word #post? idk #i rly like it though #its sleek and functional and not too flashy #i dont rly like overly flashy knives personally #i like sleek and simple designs with knives #i remember at some point my ex offered to buy me a knife from the ninja store at the mall and i couldnt choose bc all of them were so #gaudy and impractical lmao #which like if thats ur thing #its just very much not mine lol

[msfcatlover]

Death Mask Steph

Oh boy. This is the big one. I've agonized over this, and getting the design right has been... ugh. Nevermind. Here we go.

Death Mask needs to draw on Red Hood and Steph designs. (I would draw from Black Mask designs, but frankly Roman's designs are all kinda boring? He's a skull-head in a suit, and basically always has been; it's simple & effective, but there's not a lot to iterate on there.) Steph's suits tend to be armored one-pieces, but layering is so crucial to most Red Hood designs, that balancing the two has been... tricky.

(I've already shared the Stephanie Brown Costume History page. Unfortunately, the n52 designs page seems to be just descriptions with no pictures, and the page for her n52 appearances doesn't give you many good angles. So here's Steph's "Future's End" & "Future State" designs, as the stand-out missing designs, in my opinion.)

The absolute vital part of any Red Hood inspired design is, of course, the helmet. It's also been the biggest pain. Jason's had some good helmet designs and a lot of bad ones over the years, and (as I've previously stated) finding a full reference page for them is basically impossible. So here's what I'm going with.

Steph starts with a sleek, sculpted black metal base. Say something like this model of Jason's Injustice helmet. The primary difference would be that Steph's helmet opens up at the front rather than the back; the faceplate would be hinged at the top of the head, and it would swing up & forwards to reveal her face.

(Using the Injustice helmet as a base because it more than most looks like it really should open from the front. I'd also say the sides would also be able to open wider, so that it can still fit snug without being a pain to get in & out of. Not that anyone would ever bother to draw that detail, but I think it would look neat opening up in 3 directions all at once.)

Next, most of the face plate is covered by a sculpted skull. This is how she invokes the whole "Death Mask" idea, as well as purposefully stealing Roman's gimmick. Below the teeth are a couple understated tubs & valves, evoking a gasmask---something like this.

(Kinda a Red X look, I'm realizing now that I'm digging through my reference folders all at once... Anyway, this piece seems to be by Laura Sheridan, but her website seems to be down, you can only buy her art seemingly 2nd hand, and I can't find this picture listed anywhere but pinterest.)

The edges, mechanical bits, and any detail work added should be done in copper.

Within the eye sockets are two recessed glowing lenses, like Jason often has, though Steph's glow a dark magenta, casting light that borders on red.

(Obviously, these lenses change size & shape to show emotion through the mask, like you do. They're not designed to---in fact, logically all the bat-masks are designed like this in order to help hide the wearer's emotions---but that's comic logic for you.)

Below the helmet, Steph's suit is mainly made up of reinforced black leather motorcycle pants, a black undersuit, and an armored vest like this.

(But black. Obviously.)

However, she accessorizes. Steph has added a decorative metal ribcage to her armor, as well was plates mimicking a spine. The ribs should be copper-colored, while the spine can be either metallic or black.

(Depending on who's drawing them, the ribs could range from purely decorative to practically another layer of armor. And following the links from pinterest, both of those artists have apparently taken their rib-art down, which is once again very disappointing.)

Steph wears a chunky utility belt which sits crooked on her hips. I personally think it should be black (maybe brown?) with either copper, ivory, or dark magenta snaps/clasps holding the pouches shut (pick one for all pouches, not a mixture). She has a gun holstered on each hip, one on each thigh, a set of throwing knives (3-5) on the front of the belt, and wears her sickle-swords strapped criss-cross on her back.

The swords themselves are made from a copper-alloy, retaining their coppery color, and easily double her reach (are about as long as one arm.) They have a hilt not dissimilar to an Egyptian khopesh, but a completely different blade; Steph's swords have a much more exaggerated curve, and crucially, they're sharpened on the inside of the crescent, where a khopesh is sharpened on the outside. They legitimately look like a crescent moon sickle, stretched out to sword size.

(Khopesh hilt, and genuinely the best crescent sickle sword I can find for what I'm picturing. Steph's would be in much better shape, obviously.)

Steph keeps it understated-but-still-stated with knee-high, buckle-up, black leather motorcycle boots.

(These are mid-calf, but it's the closest I can find that aren't completely over the top. Also, any artist who figured out how to make the laces work without losing the straps would win my unending love for the symbolism of Steph clearly still mimicking her big brother but trying so hard to hide it.)

Steph’s sleeves are armored in black metal plates, ending in sharpened black gauntlets. I don't care much about the specific structure, I just really want that clawed look.

(Shorter would be more practical for finesse work, while longer claws could be worked into her fighting style. I am going back & forth on whether this should be both arms or just one of them, because I’m a sucker for asymmetric designs, but I think it might be a bit too much with all the other details.)

Finally, over top of it all, Steph wears an uneven ivory-colored hooded shawl made of layers of thin, wispy fabric. It hangs down her back to her waist, but bunches up in the front over her collarbones. It's purposefully designed to look tangled & messy, hiding her body shape with all its bulk & fly-aways, and is flimsy enough that grabbing hold of basically any part of it will just leave you with a fist full of torn fabric.

This is the hardest to find examples for, but... okay, so it's shaped roughly like this:

(If anyone can find the non-pinterest source for this one, I'd hugely appreciate it; all I'm getting is a dead twitter link.)

It's layered like these:

And it's made from material like this:

(This definitely gets swapped out for either a white scarf or a brown trench coat pretty regularly, just because those are easier to wrap your head around/draw. I think both could work & be cool, but Steph is trying to give off “undead vibes” with this original costume, and this gives her a more ghostly look which… okay, is heavily inspired by this Jason design.)

Also, Steph's hair is still long, but she ties it up in either a french or dutch braid before going out most of the time. Dutch is for going out in public or to the gym, where she'll lift it off her neck in a ponytail, french then gets coiled into a bun inside of her helmet.

(I am undecided on whether or not she also has an undercut.)

#rh!steph #red hood!stephanie brown #red hood!stephanie #red hood!steph #red hood stephanie #red hood stephanie brown #red hood steph #reverse robins #reverse!robins #reverse robins au #reverse order robins #reverse order batkids #reverse batkids #reverse batfam #reverse batfamily #batfamily #bat family #bat fam #batfam #batkids #bat kids #batsiblings #bat siblings #stephanie brown #costume design #my writing #mine

[softlyjiminie]

black swan | three.

⇢ pairing(s): professional dancer!park jimin x figure skater!reader.

⇢ word count: 4.1K.

⇢ rating: 16+, mature.

⇢ genre: angst, eventual smut, fluff, e2l, fake dating!au, corrupted idol!au, dancer!au, figure skater!au.

⇢ summary: a life of skating was all you’d ever known, your heart craving the feeling of ice beneath your feet and the light brush of cool air against your skin under thousands of sparkling lights… what a shame, if only you’d known that one night, one accident could rip you from the life you’d grown to love, leaving your career in the unsteady hands of the prince of ballet, park jimin.

⇢ warning(s): please read for this chapter! heavy angst, social media bullying, mentions of drugs ( weed ), mentions of alcohol and drinking, angry jimin!

⇢ author’s note(s): hello my loves! sorry for posting this so late but i really hope you enoy this chapter. i might have to delay chapter four, for a special post in order of joon n koo’s birthday! love you lots.

⇢ previous | series masterlist | next

“park... you’re out, bail’s been paid.”

jimin rolls his shoulders at the call of his name, standing from his seat on the cold metal bench. he shakes out the blonde in his hair, deciding that the colour was too good and that he’d probably dye it a darker shade as soon as he was back in the safety of his penthouse. smirking, he grabs his discarded leather jacket... designer of course and slings it over his left shoulder— poking his tongue into his cheek as the officer unlocks his cell with a deep blush.

“you sure you don’t want to join me in here one last time sweetheart?”

the officer looks down, fumbling with the keys in her hand as a blush paints her heated face. “wouldn’t you get in trouble for that? another scandal wouldn’t be good for your career,” she bites down on her lower lip and the cat like smile on jimin’s face only grows wider— his forefinger and thumb touch at her chin, tilting her head up to meet his dark eyes as if he’s going to kiss her. “especially now that the paps are outside...”

he only lets out a simple tut, staring down at her with a hooded gaze. “you wouldn’t have a career if you opened that pretty little mouth of yours, sweetheart.” the cop falls silent, not having the chance to reply as jimin parts ways with her— collecting his belongings on the way out. inmates clap and cheer for him, although he’d only been in this station for a night, he’s already built up a reputation for himself around town...drunk driving, speeding, possession of drugs. park jimin was booked in for nearly all of it; but got away with it practically every time.

the sunshine from outside blinds the dancer, harsh golden rays warming his skin in the most irritating of ways. instead, he tilts his shades down over his eyes and way from the mass of bleach blonde hair that swoops messily over one side of his face. cameras are situated around the station, jimin knows that for sure, he can’t see them but he can hear the clicks and flashes from paparazzi that hide in bushes around them. they all want jimin for this week’s front cover, it’s only obvious that he’ll make the headlines for the fifth week in a row but who’s to say he cares? flashing a toothy grin as he flips the middle finger to sneaky photographers that pretend not to be seen.

“you’re so immature, jimin,” hoseok, his manager scolds, fixing the hem of his tight and light grey christian dior suit. the man himself is only a little ways taller than jimin, hair parted and slicked down with brown tinted shades that hide the tiredness in his eyes. hoseok is not that much older than jimin, but they’ve worked together long enough for jimin to consider the elder his family— or more like a pestering older brother. his manager pulls him into a sleek black van parked not even three minutes from the police station, the walk taking longer as jimin stopped to wave at fans. he was a dancer, a performer— it didn’t matter where he was, he always had an audience and he always appealed to them. “get in the fucking car.” hoseok seethed through gritted teeth, opening the door for his client, who only smiled mischievously as he entered it.

slamming the door, hoseok circled the vehicle and climbed in from the passenger  side. “what’s got you in such a sour mood hyungie?” jimin hums lazily, leaning back into the plush, cream leather seats of his mercedes while his manager tuts in annoyance— gesturing for their driver (and body guard), seokjin, to head towards the dancer’s gated neighbourhood. running a hand through his blonde locks, jimin’s caramel eyes light up at the sight of his day bag of which he carries around on a daily basis— diving in he pulls out a box containing a few of his rolled joints. grabbing one and bringing it to the flesh of his plump lips, jimin frowns darkly, at the lack of lighter in his bag. “the fuck his my lighter?”

“i took it,” hoseok mumbles simply, rubbing his temple with his free hand, the other twirling jimin’s pink lighter between his own slender digits. the younger leans forward in his seat, restricted only by his seatbelt as they make their way through the L.A traffic— making a grab for the lighter which his manager swiftly pulls away and pockets. “you’ve been acting up again jimin, it’s not looking good for you—“

the dancer in question lurches forward once more, making seokjin swerve ever so slightly. “give me the damn lighter hoseok.” jimin seethes through gritted teeth, the hand that launched at his manager now digging into said man’s head rest. anger flares up in the dancer’s chest— he’s just spent the night in a fucking cell and all he wants to do is have a few puffs of his joint so that he can relax a little.

but hoseok doesn’t budge, easily sinking into the comfort of his seat. “you can’t keep doing this ji,” he scolds, watching the scenery pass by through their tinted windows. “this is the third time in the last two months that you’ve gotten booked into a station for something...” the younger rolls his eyes knuckles turning white. the manager feels a temper tantrum coming on, from the way his client breathes hotly down his neck. jimin had never been good at managing his anger, no one had ever known why— he was a brat for no damn reason but hoseok sensed there was always more to the blonde, that’s why he took him in. “speeding? when you could have waited for jin to pick you up. not to mention how the company shouldn’t be putting their money towards paying for your bail—“

“money that i bring into that fucking company? they wouldn’t have it if it weren’t for me.” the younger points out childishly... and to be fair, he’s not wrong. people from across the world came to see park jimin perform— if they were lucky enough. his graceful movements and talent for following the music no matter how it changed was always something that entranced his fans. jimin was their biggest source of revenue and a major asset, one of the only reasons they hadn’t fired him yet— hoseok supposed. “i’m park jimin, shit...they need me!”

hoseok sighs in defeat as their bodyguard pulls into jimin’s gated neighbourhood. the brunette turns to face his client, a worn out expression pulling at his heart shaped face. “just think about it jimin, if you don’t fix up and don’t stop your bitch fits... it could be over for you.” hoseok hates to scold jimin like this but he also knows it important that he learns. he flinches when the dancer scoffs, begrudgingly pulling out the pink lighter and passing it to the latter.

the younger simply snatches the small device from his hyung’s grasp, brining his joint to his lips and lighting it as he slides from the car.

he didn’t need to think about shit, he was park jimin for goodness sake.

social media was an evil place.

jimin was used to all types of comments across his socials. he knew he was meant to be in the studio for practice, but he was too deep into the internet to turn back now. so more often than not he found that he was drowned is all sorts of praises and love from his fans, complimenting him on his skills, his physic and his oh-so-beautiful face but sometimes, if he looked hard enough— there were those full of hatred and malice, intended break down the souls of those they were targeted at, break the soul of park jimin.

‘i used to love jimin, but he’s getting caught up in all this bad stuff... we might have to unstan...’

‘he’s still a great dancer, but i’m disappointed in how he’s acted recently.’

‘why do celebs think it’s funny to get arrested? it’s fucking cringe especially since they can afford bail? lol no offence park jimin.’

each word cuts sharply at his heart, like knives, creating deep wounds. it hurts to read them, so much so that it brings stinging tears to his eyes but he doesn’t let them fall— he hadn’t in a long time. moments like these lead the blonde to believe in his hyung’s words, was he a has been? was his career coming to an end? familiar insecurities rot his brain, draining what was once left of the boy who loved to dance.

he takes a sip of the bitter, honey liquid that fills his crystalline glass, eyes blurring and throat tightening at the burn the alcohol brings. a filling pain to ease the hurt in his heart. ‘fuck,’ jimin thinks, he’s fucked and he knows it. the dancer wonders if he had been different had his brother not fucked up his life, the older park was probably off somewhere doing god knows what with who knows who and jimin can’t help but let his mind wonder to what he would be doing if his brother wasn’t there. if his brother hadn’t caused that accident. before that day, jimin only ever dreamed of where he is now— practicing hard wherever he was; the canteen in high school, his bedroom, the kitchen when his mother was making his favourite dish.

god he missed those days.

slamming his glass down onto his island counter, jimin stretches his arms above his head so that his black fitted shirt rises up— brushing his tummy briefly. the news hums from the TV in the background, as he sways with sleepiness. something about an accident, something about a skater...he’s not listening. sighing in defeat, jimin grabs the bottle of special edition brandy and takes a lengthy swig while he makes his way to his on-suite bathroom. the dancer’s nimble fingers brush through the roots of his overbearingly blonde locks, fisting them as he looks into the mirror with reddened eyes and a broken heart.

taking another sip of his liquor, jimin finishes the substance off with a warm, fuzzy feeling in his chest before throwing the bottle in the trash and opening his cabinet, reaching for the dark hair dye that sits on the middle shelf.

stopping his mercedes benz, jimin parks his car outside of hangsang studios, the dance company that hired the boy. his eyes that reflect black under the artificial lights of the street lamp flicker up to the company logo cast into the side of the towering building— a scoff emitting from between his plump lips. the door to his car opens not a second later, aeri, jimin’s girlfriend slipping into the passenger’s side with a huff.

she throws her practice bag onto the back seat, making the dancer flinch as he presses his forehead to the steering wheel. “practice started at five, you know that right?” aeri seethes, buckling herself in and pulling down the mirror, she fluffs her blonde hair— colour similar to the one the dancer once possessed as she insisted on matching. “of course you don’t, god sometimes i wonder why i’m even with you...”

her words do nothing to the dancer as he sits up in his seat, pressing his foot into the peddles as he sets the gears into drive. ‘i sometimes wonder the same thing...’ jimin can’t help but think, sourly. he loved aeri, he did, but she was draining to be around— obsessed with the idea of being at the top, even if it meant criticising her lover at every point. he’d grown numb to her abuse by now. “i’m sorry, ri... i’ll be at practice next time.” he says instead, knowing very well that speaking his thoughts will only set the girl off. the streets are clearer than they were earlier in the day, fewer cars allowing jimin to pass through lanes with ease... his eyes focus on the road, but he longs to take in the scenery— just for a moment. to feel like the world has stopped in place. “i’ll make it up to you, babe.”

aeri scoffs, wrapping her arms around herself after she pokes jimin’s arm. he slows the car at the stop sign, watching with thin patience as the signals change from green to red, colour by colour. the girl turns to face him, lips drawn into a scowl and small hand taking a fistful of jimin’s darkened, navy locks. “dying your hair? is this what you skipped practice for? when will you take this showcase seriously jimin? fucking hell.”

the pinch in her tone irritates the life out the aforementioned dancer, so much so that his shoulders pick up while he begins to drive again. aeri wasn’t always like this, there was a time, back when they were trainees where jimin would have tripped over his feet to get her to notice him, they were usually paired for dancing events— closeness eventually leading them to dating. but now, she fancied the idea of being a star rather than the blue haired boy himself... the infamous new york showcase had always been her dream and jimin supposes he was only a stepping stone to that path. his name being a direct lead there, his money an added bonus. he knew that skipping practices made her mad, maybe that’s what why he did it— to get back at all the horrid words she’d spouted at him in the last few years.

“— and i swear, if you don’t clean up your act, i’ll leave you and find a new dance partner—“

jimin tunes back into her words, an empty threat that he’d heard from her many times before— looking into the rear view mirror he catches her humid gaze before making a turn towards her house. “i know baby, i’m sorry...i’ll do better, let me make it up to you, yeah?” he mumbles absentmindedly, using words that he knew would satisfy her appetite to being him down until the next time. “i’ll buy you that bag you wanted, hm? or those dance shoes you were after... will that do until i’ve caught up with dance?” aeri pulls at her hair in frustration, reaching behind her for her dance bag as she kicks her feet and screams like a petulant child.

“pull over!”

jimin does as he’s told, pushing his hands through his hair as anger rises in his chest— rattling inside his body as if asking for permission to break free. aeri waits for cars to pass before opening the door and storming out, not even giving her lover time to react. the blonde girl whips out her phone, texting someone jimin can’t see before the dancer’s wound down his window.

“aeri, come on doll, let’s not fight.” he tries to reason with her, but the will to keep her close has gone from her voice as she looks up at him with a fiery gaze. her chest rises and falls with anger, causing jimin to roll his eyes and bring his head back into the car. “you’re really gonna walk home?”

“no, my new dance partner is coming to pick me up because he’s not a lazy bum like—!”

jimin doesn’t stay to hear the rest of her cold insult, having had just about enough of her attitude, reversing the car and heading in the direction of his home, his anger still simmering brightly.

“well well well, if it isn’t our handsome ji. look who’s finally coming around!”

the boy in question rolls his eyes despite the little smile that plays at his lips, he’s glad to see that hoseok hyung’s mood has sweetened slightly— his expression matching the brightness of the L.A sun that highlights the blue of jimin’s hair, yet causes him to squint at the same time. he pulls his shades over his eyes, ignoring hoseok’s outstretched hand and going in for a quick, apologetic hug. the manager knows jimin isn’t one for displays of affection, but knows him well enough to recognise an apology from the younger when he sees one.

but jimin’s warmth retreats just as fast as it came, the younger pulling away as if hoseok’s new alexander wang suit has has scorched his tan skin. jimin seems to be grumbling as he slides into the van which seokjin drives and buckles himself in. the annoyance the blue haired boy felt from last night has yet to fade, but he knows he has to keep his anger in check— hoseok texted him early this morning about a meeting with the board... which usually never means anything good.

the car ride is mostly silent, the slight hum of the radio in the background as jimin rests in the back seat. there were few times he’d ever met the board, the first being after his accident, when hoseok had recruited him. the second being when he’d made it big, when the CEO had told him he’d made it big just like his parents would have wanted and the third, well...that would be now. seokjin pulls up to the tl the hangsang company building, quickly helping the dancer out before heading with into the building with hoseok by their side.

walking through the company building, jimin attracts a lot of attention— many have said that he exudes an intimidating, strong aura but the dancer only reckons it’s because of his name...after all, his family does come with a reputation. rookies and senior dancers alike blush and bow as jimin makes his way towards the head office, his slicked back blue hair shines under the false white light and reflects off of the black shades that match his jeans,  chelsea boots and turtle neck.  of course, the boy knows that he looks good, fingers coming up to fix the denim jacket he wears but his stride slows when passing his usual practice room— gaze faltering as he spots aeri tangled with a younger dancer, a rookie who jimin recognises as choi san. the familiar emotions from yesterday crawl up his spine and mix with the blackened jealousy that blooms across his firm chest— but jimin doesn’t have time to linger on his feelings as hoseok ushers the trio into an elevator and presses the button for the tenth floor. aeri looks away from the dancer just as the door closes.

“it’s not looking good for you jimin,” the CEO, explains— he goes by the name of mr.chan. jimin himself admits that he hasn’t been listening since the moment they entered the room but he picks up the tone of disappointment in the CEO’s voice.  shaking out his dark locks, jimin scoffs likely and rolls his shoulders— feeling annoyance build up behind his eyes... he’s got a headache now, which is only worsened by hoseok giving him a scolding glare.

“jimin don’t.”

he sits up at the second mention of his name, jimin knew not to test his manager at this time and also knew hoseok would give him the scolding of a life time if he didn’t listen. tilting his gaze to the CEO, jimin finally tunes into mr.chan, even if he doesn’t like what he’s saying. “you’re our prized dancer park, a household name...but you’ve had fewer performances then any other dancer this year, your recent bad reputation is...driving clientele away,” the old man lets out a wheezing cough, making jimin grimace. mr.chan was a greasy old man, with oily hair and beady eyes. he was harsh to the eyes, jimin supposed it was lucky that he was rich or mr.chan was doomed to be single for the rest of his life. “not to mention the bail we’ve been paying, you’re more of a burden than an asset at this point.”

“you’re fuckin’ kidding me right?” jimin rises from his seat like the anger that boils and bubbles through his veins, having enough of the ugly man that rattles on before him. all he can think about his punching the CEO square in the face. “you  fucking need me here. if im a burden to you, i’ll cut my loss and join another company that wants me. they all want me. i made this place what it is and i’ll tear it right back down. you need me.” the dancer seethes, pointing his finger right at the CEO’s face, mr.chan and his fellow associates swallow thickly, because after all— jimin is right. his raw talent alone is what built this company up from what it was, and anyone would kill for the money that he brings in however he may act.

the panel of staff mr.chan has with him, are rendered silent as is the CEO himself— who are they to challenge park jimin? but a lowly assistant speaks up, grabbing the attention of the congregation. “but raw talent will only last you so long...after that, what will you have? a pile of scandals?” she says meekly, as if no one would hear her— but the scowl on park jimin’s face tells her otherwise. usually, she’d have been fired on the spot for talking in such a manner— jimin might have even had a field day with making her run errands for him but mr.chan and his associates need an argument against the dancer’s case, promptly taking  the assistant’s statement and running with it.

the blue haired dancer sits back in his seat with defeat as the group of fat heads before him smile and cheer as if they’ve just discovered wine. although hoseok chooses this time to interject, sensing jimin’s temper tantrum reaching its peak once again. “but we have a solution, don’t we mr.chan?” the manager cuts through their wheezing laughter in a way that would make you think he was the boss around here. “remember what we discussed?”

the old man nods suddenly, almost in fear as he gestures to the assistant to pass a file to jimin. honeybrown eyes narrow as the girl makes her way over with a brown file full of documents— a sense of nervousness emitting from her. the dancer knows it’s partly because everyone is scared shitless of him and his reputation, the other part is that he’s damn well attractive up close. jimin bites down on his lower lip, looking the girl up and down before he snatches the file from her and opens it up — revelling in the way she blushes with embarrassment.

“we’ve proposed that you start dance therapy with a world renowned physical therapist, min yoongi,” hoseok explains slowly, knowing that anything mr.chan says from now will surely set the dancer off. the aforementioned male grips the arms of his seat, knuckles turning white as he tries his best to suppress another outburst and listen to his manager. “he’s excellent at what he does, the best of the best— he’d be sure to get you back on track...”

jimin scoffs, staring daggers into the spot between mr.chan’s unbearably bushy eyebrows. if looks could kill, he’d be dead within an instant. “so you want me to join a beginners class? do i need to remind you of who the fuck i am?”

“no, you’ll have private sessions,” his manger says lowly, grabbing the younger’s attention. “we want him to motivate you, we’re not denying that you’re a phenomenal dancer jimin, you’ve just been heading in the wrong direction for a few years...”

all this new information causes a feeling of unease to reside within park jimin, the changes that are to come don’t sit well with him... but with hoseok’s words from a few days ago swirling and twirling with his thoughts like a waltz, jimin can only agree to their proposition. “so, what’s the catch?” he whispers now.

“they’ve got another client in south korea ,  we’re thinking of bringing them over too—“

“well then do it!” jimin stands, raising his voice, the conversation is too tedious and all he wants it out. he needs a drink or a smoke or something other than people telling him what he was or what he isn’t. running a hand through his navy locks, the dancer grabs the file and begins to head out, not caring about what’s left to he said. but before he has a chance to storm out, hoseok slips a piece of paper into his hand and lets him go with a saddening smile.

“it’s the name of the client,” he whispers.

and so with that, jimin strides out of the office, the company building— not even bothering to greet seokjin properly as he jumps back into their black van. his bodyguard promptly drives him home, knowing better than to question the silenced dancer, who unfolds the paper to reveal a name.

‘LN YN’.

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[a-lil-perspective]

The Bad Batch and Axe/Knife Throwing

A/N: Uhhh I’ve had this in my drafts for weeks. I don’t actually know what this is. Just funky bro stuff that spiraled into like 2.5k words because I just don’t know when to stop, do I. The working title for this was “Bullshit and Bullseyes”, if that puts anything into perspective (I nearly made that the actual title haha). Anyway. Enjoy?

Technically, no; they didn’t need to spend credits on booking the space. By all accounts, there’s nothing wrong with chucking weapons against the Havoc Marauder’s hull. You wouldn’t believe the damage it’s withstood over the years.

Nevertheless, its walls had been taking quite the beating lately (honestly how many times has it actually been said “no weapons in the house”?) and quite frankly, Hunter was getting sick of grousing about the fact.

But when you’ve been cooped up in the vacuum of space for days as the Bad Batch has, you become acutely aware of the perpetual sensation of losing your mind—and of the stagnant air beginning to fester.

Let’s put it this way: Intelligence work is not kind to four Super Commandos, who’d just as soon wrangle a herd of Gundarks than allow anymore strategic analysis to keep them huddled around a comm system for days on end with no intermission in sight. It can’t be stressed enough the way this work was far, far beneath them. They’d just as soon tell High Command to get on with the invasion already (where their skill sets actually applied) and that if they want Clone Force 99’s help, they had best find a better way to hold their attention, because “tapping into enemy comm channels” ain’t worth a damn.

But, until then: there were other things that would do the trick.

Back within the planet’s gravitational pull once again, the Bad Batch prioritized their short timeframe of respite by not actually participating in the act of respite at all, instead seeking out the nearest weapons range. It felt something like freedom upon discovery.

The axe throwing establishment was practically empty when they arrived, which was the driving force in their eagerness, having booked the last session of the night. More room to work.

And, no one to tell you you can’t bring your own arsenal.

Hunter removed the strap of his weighty knife bag from his shoulder and set it down as the boys settled in their designated lane. While Wrecker and Crosshair dove for the bag like deprived womp rats, Tech had more gracefully found a spot on the nearest bench and planted himself to it, tapping away at the little box atop his vambrace. Predictable.

“Don’t even give me that look, Hunter,” Tech didn’t even look up, already privy to the quizzical gaze while fixated on his slew of technology. “You knew good and well I would be taking notes and collecting data during this session for the purpose of enhancing our overall performance going forward.”

As if he hadn’t been taking an infinite amount of notes the past five days.

“How ‘bout you take some notes on how to have fun,” Crosshair mumbled through the toothpick he anchored to the corner of his lip (Hunter always felt nervous when he worked out or trained with that thing in, just waiting for the day he finally chokes). The sniper didn’t bother looking back at Tech as he rummaged through Hunter’s bag in search of knives he deemed fit. He grinned wickedly at a particular set of five, all of them airy and tapered and perfect for his nimble fingers to sidle around. They were similar in size, if only a few inches wider, to the darts he usually threw in his quarters. He considered them with a sleight of hand, quickly piecing together an accurate projection of air velocity and the weapons’ overall weight.

Crosshair would make his mark. He always did.

It further came as no surprise that the Sergeant excelled in his turns from the get-go. He wasted no time in nailing bullseye after bullseye with a variety of weapons big and small. It was comical, the way Tech would make sounds of marvel and adjust his recording lens accordingly when Hunter would nail a pair of axes with a backwards throw or something of dramatic flair.

And Wrecker, oh, Wrecker.

Let’s say his turn was cut rather short—as were the rest of his brothers—when his very first throw, bearing as much care a demolition expert could muster, drove straight through the target in its entirety and brought the entire structure down wall-to-board. Hunter shuddered, grimacing instinctively at the harsh clang of colliding metals and wood that ended in a timbering heap.

Wrecker merely flashed a sheepish smile.

Hunter bit back his frustrated sigh, but the one expelling behind him was unmistakable. He whirled around to find the sensation to be correct, and that the expression marring the Devaronian’s features was unsightly.

Great. The owner of the establishment.

“I’ll pay for that,” Hunter offered immediately, gesturing awkwardly to the ghastly pile of materials. It was an auto-pilot response, really; Hunter was used to cleaning up after his rowdy bunch by now.

“Got that right,” the Devaronian rumbled, cracking his brooding knuckles as a statement that seemed more mindless than anything; he must’ve realized it foolish to get into it with four Super Clones. He turned around and stalked off, but not before grumbling something about the Clones being “mindless rank weeds” and “no better than droids”.

Wrecker must not have heard thank the Maker, otherwise the entire building could’ve been brought down on their heads in nothing short of an emotional outburst. Crosshair simply threw a crude gesture to the Devaronian’s retreating backside. It was either that or the knife in his hand.

“Cross, put your finger down dammit, we’re trying not to cause trouble here,” Hunter hissed. “You really wanna piss off a Dev?”

“You really wanna piss off a Crosshair?” Wrecker interjected with a wicked chuckle, always at the ready to tango with Crosshair and trouble.

He had a point, though.

Crosshair made a deep scoffing noise in his chest and simply turned his attention back to the dilapidated target. The sniper with no fear. Or so he’d like everyone to believe.

“Sorry, Sarge,” Wrecker rubbed at the back of his thick neck, having gone back to anxiously surveying the damage.

“Let’s just switch lanes,” Hunter countered coolly, helping Tech gather up their weaponry and move over one. It’s not like the owner would let him (or his pocket) forget, so there was no use worrying about it.

With a fresh target and a fresh turn at the ready, Wrecker eagerly began to ask for a re-do with the axes he skewered with moments ago only to be let down—gently, of course. Hunter wasn’t a mean brother, for fierfek’s sake.

He felt a bit guilty over limiting Wrecker’s turns but honestly, what was he thinking, bringing them to a place like this? It’s too... normal for Commandos—whatever ‘normal’ is. They would’ve been better off back on the Marauder.

No they wouldn’t have.

Maybe that’s why Hunter willingly ventured out on a weekend evening in the Coruscanti Districts for that sense of normality for he and his brothers; as if it could actually be found in the bustle of city life and whatever resided within.

It’s not that he wanted them to fit in, per se—Hunter can speak for the four of them in that they’re secure in their abilities and standings. But it’s as if he wanted something... grounding. In the middle of a war. Certainly a foreign term to both soldiers and citizens alike.

Grounding. Something to give the boys a sense of fulfillment and a taste of youth, even if only for the night. No expectations, no methods. Just Serotonin and sibling rivalry. Fulfillment.

Wrecker was certainly feeling fulfilled over the knives he opted to throw instead, much lighter and more controlled than the axe—which was a shame, really; he was very good at them. You haven’t quite lived until you’ve seen Wrecker at full capacity in his brute strength. The axes were just an inkling of his potential. Despite the fact that the majority of knives completely disappeared in his wide expanse of palm, he could still stick them with deadly force. Tech especially made relevance of the fact, insisting he show Wrecker a recap of his feats later.

When he wasn’t recording and plugging in data for the other throwers, Tech went a few rounds with Hunter’s smallest knives: quick and sleek and agile, much like the goggled member himself. The preference of axe or knife was divvied between the group: axe’s were more Hunter and Wrecker’s thing while knives were more Tech and Crosshair’s.

It took a bit of encouragement for Tech to actually complete his turn, as he was more concerned with the preliminaries and technicalities instead of the actual throwing. He’d stand there for what felt like several minutes, considering and trying to incorporate the use of his tech until Crosshair—how dare he—cut through his concentration with a sharp demand to “Just. Throw.”

It was rather unfortunate that there was only one target available to four people wanting to use it simultaneously. It seemed the members of the elite Commando squad still hadn’t mastered the art of patiently waiting their turn.

Hunter couldn’t help but find the hilarity in that Tech managed to land several of the knives as ‘butt sticks’: handle side in. He chuckled to himself. Only Tech.

The engineer claimed the act was wholly intentional. Hunter thought his witty brother was just trying to excuse a simple over-rotation. Tech had the aptitude for speed under his belt, but sometimes he had trouble controlling his speed. But if you thought that hindered Tech’s ingenuity or prowess in the slightest, you were sorely mistaken.

It’s times like these Hunter felt that familiar swell of pride in his chest as he relish his brothers’ unique array of strengths, weaknesses, and opportunes. All of it played a monumental part. The Sergeant in him couldn’t ask for a more proficient squad. The brother in him couldn’t ask for more unique siblings.

In no time, all four men had each accumulated their own sheen of sweat, the byproduct of a solid hour’s workout—no, two hours (Hunter should know by the way he grudgingly dumped another handful of credits into the Devaronian’s on the hour), their allotment extended all because the bros refused to be done, reduced to acting like petulant children because of.

Speaking of petulant.

“Who’s in the lead now, Tech?” Crosshair asked through a lingering pant, breaking from his turn as he took a seat next to the human scoreboard. He accepted the cool rag Tech handed him with a curt nod and slung it over the back of his neck to soak up the sweat, rolling his toned shoulders and shaking away the thought of potentially having to break from the rifle tomorrow because of how much he overdid it with the knives. Sore shoulders made for shit shots.

Tech chewed his lip and shot a single, timid glance up to Cross, who suddenly realized that maybe the gifted rag rapidly warming behind his neck was actually just an act of grooming for the disappointing news to come.

Tech cleared his throat. “In the current overall standing, it appears that Wrecker takes the lead, with Hunter a very close second, me of course making the ranks, and you being last—”

“Aw hell no,” Crosshair yanked the rag off and threw it to his feet as he pulled the toothpick out from between his now grit teeth, jabbing it around the room in emphasis. “I’ve easily got the best aim around here, I ain’t the one who destroyed an entire target and I didn’t miss one damn time—”

“It is not about missing, Cross; there are many factors to consider in the overall performance,” Tech answered matter-of-factly, with maybe the slightest hint of sympathy (more like irritation) laced within.

“And that includes humility,” Hunter chimed in, crossing his arms.

Wrecker and his lack of knowledge on appropriate social cues left him cheering over his victory, and Hunter forced himself to swallow the smile tugging at his lips. Few things in life filled him as much as Wrecker’s youthful exuberance. It was infectious.

He gave a light shove to the solid mass of man. “That means you too, Wreck.”

“Bullshit...” Crosshair sulked, numbingly processing his loss. He found himself leaning into Tech’s supportive pat on the back, suddenly too tired to care about his dwindling dignity or even any of his prior winnings in the past. He’ll forever be consigned to his dangerous competitive streak and that’s that.

“You’re just a sore loser!” Wrecker was grinning wide again, all teeth and triumphant. Crosshair scowled further and yes, he was actually pouting up from his spot on the bench thank you very much. Blackmail him later.

“The only thing that’s gonna be sore is your ass when I shove my foot up it.”

“Hey.” Hunter’s cue to intervene. “Settle it down. We had a good run tonight, blew off some steam, got a nice workout and stretched the legs. Let’s head back home, yeah?”

Hunter received murmurs of agreement save for Crosshair, who responded with silence, which was his answer.

The Bad Batch gathered their things and headed out, with Hunter paying the owner for the property damage on the way (reaching up to smack Wrecker in the back of the head just for good measure), and the alien made no attempts at subtlety in his relief over the way the chaotic bunch were finally departing. Apparently, the Bad Batch showcased some of the more poorer examples of decent clientele.

Funny that one might assume ‘decent’ and ‘Coruscant’ actually go together.

As they emerged back into the flow of the planet-wide city, the near-midnight breeze quickly catching in all of the sweat spots, Wrecker stopped in his tracks, having been eyeing a dejected Crosshair on the way.

“Hunter?”

“Yeah, vod?”

A timid pause. “Can we get ice-cream? I think Cross here could use some. With sprinkles and a starcherry on top, just how he likes it.” Wrecker scooped up the lanky brother in question, who squawked in protest. “And a nice, squishy Wrecker hug.” He pet Crosshair’s head. “That always helps him feel much better about me winning.”

#wrecker is so thoughtful XD #lol idk I’m sorry guys #star wars #the bad batch #clone force 99 #do y’all actually want this idk #I will happily take requests on things you DO #requests are always open for blurbies or whatever :) #butt sticks are a real thing btw #that’s how I land mine XD #my writing #it’s a lil thing

[headcanonthings]

A;TLA Propsal Bonus Headcanons

So while I was thinking up the Zukka and Bakoda proposals I got a little (a lot?) caught up and started thinking of the other characters and those posts are already so loooong so I didn’t include them but I really do like some of these ideas so now here’s a bonus post!

Iroh

Iroh is one of those lucky nobels where his arranged marriage is actually with a women he quite likes and it’s mutual as they have spent many years knowing of their arrangement so they agreed to try to at the very least be friends which worked and they eventually actually developed romantic feelings towards each other

So when it comes time to make the engagement official Iroh knows he’s gotta get something that she’ll actually like and wear proudly as wife of the Future Fire Lord

And long hair is a thing in the Fire Nation and Lily (who Iroh affectionately calls his Fire Lily) has really long hair that she likes to wear in elaborate braids with decorations like flowers and what not

So Iroh, newly knighted The Dragon of The West, decides this is the perfect thing to give her so he has a beautiful dragon hair pin commissioned that can be weaved in with her braid, the body of the dragon peeking out as one of the strands and the dragon’s face boldly resting at the top ruby eyes staring at all who see it

(Lu Ten thinks those are the eyes people mean when they say his mother has eyes in the back of her head)

Iroh has smaller pieces made as well, little golden flowers with tiny ruby dewdrops for when she does more elaborate elaborate styles where the dragon wouldn’t fit

Ty Lee and Mai

Ever the bold one, Ty Lee is the one to propose to Mai

Neither of them are big on jewelry so it’s takes nearly three straight days of bouncing ideas off of Zuko between meetings for her to come up with the perfect gift

Ty Lee commissions a simple pair of earrings

They’re sleek vibrant gold and are shaped like Mai’s favorite throwing knives, rubies embedded in the shapes hilts

Ty Lee proposes at the end of the Fire Lily Festival, pulling Mai to one of the smaller courtyards in the Palace, the same one where the two had first met as children

Mai can barely get any words out past the sudden swell of emotions and simply takes the earrings out Ty Lee’s hand and puts them on

Mai hopes the smile stretching her lips is enough; for Ty Lee who knows her girlfriend—now fiancée— so well it totally is

Mai doesn’t make as much of a moment when she gives her gift to Ty Lee

(Later after a night of drinking, Mai will admit to Zuko that it took everything not to just throw the gift and run struggling with the overwhelming emotions; Zuko quietly notes the way Mai idly plays with one of her earrings the entire time)

Mai has a choker made in the traditional Fire Nation Style (it’s one of the few types of jewelry Ty Lee will wear since it won’t get in the way of her gymnastics); a gold emblem designed to look like a circus tent hangs at the base of her throat the rubies dotting the top of the tent poles

Ty Lee changes the style of her tops to something with a lower neckline just to show off the necklace completely unbothered by the scandalized looks the older courtiers give her

Aang and Katara

The Air Nomads didn’t have marriages in the sense that the other nations do,there were commuted couples but no formal ceremonies and no engagement traditions at least none that Aang can recall

Katara is very supportive of Aang keeping to as many of his Air Nomad traditions as possible but Aang also knows that Katara has always dreamed of having a marriage like her parents and he wants to give that to her

He goes to Sokka and Hakoda and even Batoband Kanna to learn as much as he can about Southern Water Tribe marriage traditions as possible

That’s how Aang learns that betrothal necklaces haven’t been used in generations

He’s nervous about having to create something himself but he honestly feels good about not giving Katara another necklace considering how attached she is to her mother’s

Aang really latches on to the idea of the gift being useful and decides to create a new waterskin

Hakoda thankfully helps with procuring the materials; providing him with the tanned skin

Kanna watches over him as he sews the pouch together and embroiders a design to mark the pouch’s significance

He doesn’t posses the skills to create anything to elaborate but he creates a few bands that wraps around the pouch made up of the air nation and water nation symbols and after some thought and advice from Kanna he sews in the stylized image of a man Otter-Penguin as a reminder of the first day they met

When Aang looks at it all he can see are the imperfections noting how clear it is that he was an amateur; Kanna reassures him that it’s about the internation, the feelings put into each stitch that really matter anyone from the Southern Water Tribe would look at the waterskin and understand that it was an engagement gift

Aang and Katara share pretty much everything when they’re traveling which means keeping presents secret is basically impossible so Aang decides to not wait for any significant date; instead once he gets Kanna and Hakoda’s approval on his present he pulls Katara away from her latest project and takes her to the spot where she first showed him the otter-penguins

He had a whole speech planned out but he fumbles it after the first few words and starts rambling a bit as he tries to explain his feelings and desire to participate in some water tribe traditions since it wouldn’t be fair to her to only follow the air nations

Katara gets a little lost in all the words until Aang finally presents the waterskin to her and she understands immediately; she cuts off his rambling by tackling him to a hug, tears streaming down her face as she exclaims “ YES!”

She pulls away from the hug just as quickly to take hold of the waterskin; she compliments all of his designs and tells him how she can’t wait to show it off in the village and pulls the strap over her head so that the pouch rests on her hip like it usually dies when they’re not at the South Pole

#a;tla #avatar the last airbender #proposal headcanon #headcanon #uncle iroh #mai #ty lee #aang #katara #kaatang #mailee

[designer-dad]

Peak Design Everyday Backpack 30L - The Review

So we’ve arrived. The culmination of years of fine-tuning and honing in what I look for in a bag. Years of tastes growing, becoming uber-specific and demanding. And 6 months of searching for a very good bag that won’t (totally) break the bank. Something that a frugal person can still say is worth every penny.

Behold, my EDC choice: The Peak Design Everyday Backpack in 30L, Charcoal.

Peak Design first caught my eye when they developed the Everyday Messenger Bag. I was thoroughly taken by how a bag could be so simple, yet powerful. It didn’t require very specific pockets for every possible item. What it had was a thoughtful and novel approach to organization that, while based on camera gear, worked exceedingly well for EDC. With thoughtful and useful pockets, the ability to expand, and those awesome gear dividers, I knew they had a winner. But I was already getting past the stage of messengers and looking at backpacks. if only they did a backpack...

... And then they did. And what a backpack. It was very hard as a designer not to fall down the rabbit hole of videos on the features and uses of this bag. There really isn’t a whole lot you’d wanna do with this (as an EDC/typical travel bag) that you can’t do. True, it’s not submersible, and I don’t think it would do well with a hydration bladder, so it won’t really work as a hiking pack. But aside from that, this thing really can do it all. Drone carry? Check. Tripod? Check. Yoga mat? Check. Lots of giant water bottles? Check. Laptop and tablet? Check. Camera gear for days? Check. Room to grow? Check. Slinging a days worth of purchases from the Mahane Yehudah Market in Jerusalem? Check.

There’s no shortage of reviews and videos breaking down this bag, so I won’t get into all the nitty gritty of what makes it awesome. It’s pretty much unanimous that it is. So I’ll go through why it checks my particular boxes, and then run through how I think it could get even better.

1) Masterful Organization Major pros here, a few cons. Overall, Peak addresses my biggest issue with backpacks, which was really the main sell for me. They employed a way for me to subdivide the giant big pocket into smaller chunks that are easy to reconfigure in both immediate ways (simply flipping a flap one way or another) or more semi-permanent ways (removing/adding a divider, or simply moving one). This is epic. This scratches my organization itch SO SATISFACTORILY. 2 side water bottle pockets (more on that below), handy soft-lined kinda hidden zipper pocket at the top of the laptop compartment, interior hidden passport pocket, and 2 side panels of smaller organization which expand to hold FREAKING ANYTHING. Seriously, I’ve never not been able to fit something in there, even things that obviously should not fit. And it’s got hidden loops and tethers all over the place for carrying literally any kind of weird thing strapped to the outside as well. It covers all the bases, some better than others, but certainly covers them all. I can store big stuff, little stuff, weird stuff, and more, and know it will all have a place, no matter the size or shape or fragility.  Other than documents. More on that later. And it’ll grow to add more. YES. 

2) DSLR/Camera Carry This is what Peak Design focuses on, and this is what they do exceedingly well. Taking cues from many other DSLR carry inserts, their origami style dividers have flaps that allow you to move a portion of these semi-rigid dividers to the side to make way for larger camera grips, or lay long lenses across. But that’s an understatement. These movable flaps give an excellent combination of structure, flexibility, protection, and modularity to allow for nearly any kind of setup you’d like. They pretty damn well near nailed this aspect of bags.

3) Travel Buddy/EDC Buddy Yeah, it’s more or less a joy to use this bag for travel and EDC. It flexes nimbly between what I use everyday and the particular items I carry for travel. It grows to carry my extra gear for travel (prayer paraphernalia, books, cable pack, snacks), yet shrinks back to a reasonable size when all I’ve got is my lunch and collection of way-too-many EDC knives. 

And no matter the kind of trip, it can tackle it. Overnight stay to get away from the kids? Done. 3 day work trip to North Carolina? No problem. 3 day winter break with the kids in Louisville? Got it. Week with the boys in Scotland? Yup. 10 days with the wife in Israel, along with day-pack use? Check. 2.5 day Design Show in Milan? Sure.

It’s a great airport companion, as the quick release strap adjusters and swing-to-the-side move make backpack carry almost as easy to access as messenger carry, and always stymies TSA just enough that they tend to give up on it quick and leave me alone. And I love being the only guy on the Metra in Chicago with this bag. Other than that one time I sat next to another dude with the same bag, and proceeded to make a new friend.

4) Backpack Carry Now almost any backpack could theoretically satisfy this requirement, but Peak does it in a pretty special way. The straps are fairly comfortable, very ergonomically sculpted, and have a giant swiveling rivet at the top that allow it to fit my 6′2″ 230 pound frame, as well as my 5″4′ 120 pound wife, all without issue. It has a somewhat ventilated back panel, to ease comfort a little (but still doesn’t quite measure up to a serious hiking pack like an Osprey), though it will still yield a pretty sweaty back with prolonged wear. But for a bag that’s rigid, holds its shape well, stand on its own when you put it down, protects your gear, and has a water-resistant coating, it’s a pretty dang comfortable bag. 

5) Water Bottle Carry YES. This bag does this better than almost any I’ve seen. The side pockets are deep, fit even GIANT bottles, and somehow tuck flat back against the bag when not in use. It looks fitted empty, with my slim travel umbrella, or a 750ml bottle in it. And it has a pocket on BOTH sides. 

6) Laptop Carry Do you carry a giant 17″ CAD Mobile Workstation? Then you’re out of luck. Anything else, and you’re covered. It fits my 15″ Mobile Workstation just fine, and that’s massive. The 20L would fit a 15″ standard laptop as well. It’s got a soft protected pocket with top access, keeping it separate from the main compartment, and it expands to the inside of the bag when occupied, so the bag does not physically grow when you add a laptop. I find it nice that the bag always maintains the same profile. I don’t have to readjust on the train to avoid hitting people if all of a sudden my bag is really full. It also has a tablet sleeve, but I find it hard to keep one in there if I’m toting my beast laptop. Admittedly, this is a problem for very few people.

7) Svelte but Spacious As I said above, I love the fact that the profile of this bag pretty much never changes. Yes, it gets slightly taller when it’s crammed, but front to back, side to side, it’s always the same, semi-rigid structure. It’ll always fit under the seat in front of me on the plane. I won’t accidentally hit people with it because I forgot I added a pair of shoes. Yet it looks sleek, and not gargantuan, even though it can hold up to a generous 30L. It’s more like 22L when not fully expanded. Granted, it looks on the larger side when my wife is carrying it, but on a, uh, fully grown male such as myself, it looks just fine. Not too large for EDC.

8) Generally Awesome Designers like toys. We love novelty. Cool features. Little pleasant surprises. This bag is full of them, and they continue to provide joy on a daily basis. This is how products should be. From the unique magnetic latch and bar system, to the hidden magnets for the water bottle and hidden pockets (everyone loves magnets), various hidden tethers, stretchy expandable pockets, lovely detailed hardware, plethora of carry handles that don’t look like luggage handles, this bag just delights over and over. Even with it’s few frustrations.

Ok, so now I want to share my wishlist for the next Everyday Backpack. Nothing is perfect, and this bag is no exception. So here are the VERY FEW issues I have with this bag, after about 2 years of use for both EDC carry and frequent travel, both domestic and international.

1) I wish there was a small, quick access pocket. Not big, not deep, but a pocket on the outside of the bag that I can stick the boarding pass, earbuds, train ticket, spare change, passport, or whatever single random small thing I need to stick somewhere that's not in my pants pocket, but can quickly take it right back out without undoing 2 zippers or a flap. Like the Timbuk2 Napoleon pocket. 

Maybe along the seam between the side and back panels. A little 6 inch zipper. I like the pocket in the laptop pocket, but can't access that with the quick sling to the side move. I would like to get at that pocket using that move.

2) I wish there was a dedicated spot to clip a carabiner onto the shoulder strap. Gotta keep my keys somewhere quick. They include a tether for keys in the water bottle pocket (that uses the same clip as their strap system, oooOOOooo), and I like the tether, but it's not the fast access of a carabiner. This is a couple ways I've been doing it, but it took a while to figure out these solutions. I could use a couple loops on the strap to do it.

3) I wish I had a good document storage solution. I have a hulking laptop, so that pocket won't work if my laptop is in there. I need another thin vertical sleeve. I’ve seen a YouTube video with a workaround for that, but it’s inelegant, and renders a divider and a lot of space much less useful.

4) I wish I had better writing implement organization. Maybe 5 dedicated pen slots. I know I'm not most people, but as a Designer, I have a handful I need with me. Sharpie, pen, pencil, Xacto, felt tip, pocket scale. They scratch against each other in a shared pocket, and the material is too thick for the clips to clip onto for most of them, so they tend to slide too far down to reach quickly. I also don’t like that it’s not quick to pull out a pen. It’s swinging the bag to the front, opening a zipper, opening a flap, opening another zipper, pulling out the pen, then reverse. Nah.

5) Sweat. So. Much. Sweat. I’ve worn this for hikes, all day shopping in markets, at trade shows, in giant airports, and the back sweat is measurable in inches. Not as bad if there’s a coat and it’s cold, but if this is on the shirt on my back, I will be wetter than I care to be in normal attire.

6) While I like the little pocket at the top of the zippered laptop compartment, it grows into the main pocket, and right at the top. This pocket is the natural place for sunglasses, keys, etc, but as it grows, it greatly interferes with access into the main compartment, and can also crush stuff in that little pocket.

7) I’d love to see other kind of dividers or organization options that can attach to that velcro-ey interior of the bag. I wanna get their tech bag that fits nicely, but would love to have some more specific options available to mix and match with.

There's a part of me that hopes they never put these into play, because I don't wanna drop another $280 on a bag. But if they do, I happily will. 

#edc #everyday carry #backpack #bag #messenger #camera #dslr #gear #travel #luggage #review #design #peak design #peak #industrial design #product design #product review

[miraculousfoxnews]

Kitsune’s reveal & Stoneheart’s rage

This whole mess started when I, the lovely Jasmine, was shopping for college.

There was this lovely thrift shop that I found, it had so many cute boxes and plates and goodies, how could I resist. 

I got a cute jacket, it had fox ears! I found some cups, they had pretty designs okay. I found a few cool boxes, they could be useful guys, don’t judge me. The item responsible was one of these boxes. It had dark red wood with a cool red pattern on it.

I swear that the box just appeared in front of me, it wasn’t there when I looked a minute ago.

Regardless, I bought my new stuff, for a great price, and headed home to pack it to take to college.

My room is super cute by the way, it’s painted like a field of flowers, my mom did it when I was really little and it’s super pretty.

It’s currently a bit of a mess, with books scattered all over and clothes in piles on the floor. I have two full floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and books stuffed all over my room, and it’s so difficult to pick the ones to take to college. 

I may also have a habit of collecting nicknacks, so there are a lot of items for me to pick from around my room.

So I started wrapped the cups and stuffed them in the backpack, and checked each box to make sure they were empty, until suddenly the red one lit up when it was opened. 

A brilliant light rose up and I stared in disbelief as a strange being appeared.

“Mm,” the creature shook its head as it stretched.

I slowly reached for a throwing knife I’d been debating on whether to take to college or not and prepared to throw it at the creature.

“Oh, Hello!” It beamed at me and I froze. 

“....... AHHHHH” I threw the knife at it. 

“Woah, nice throw kit,” the thing dodged neatly, “I’m Trixx,” it dodged the next knife, “the fox kwami of Spirits and Trickery.” it twirled around another knife, “It’s nice to meet you!” 

“Uh... “ Now, this was a very odd situation, but let it not be said that I can’t adapt… after a brief panic, “Nice to meet you.”

The creature, a kwami it said? Beamed at her, “I like your room,” it zipped around, studying everything, “Do you have any eggs?”

“Uh, I’ll give you eggs if you tell me what you are and where you came from.” 

The kwami laughed, “I already told you what I am, I’m a kwami, my name’s Trixx.” Trixx was suddenly right in front of me, “As for where I came from, I am the embodiment of Spirits and Trickery. I came from those, I am those.”

I stared, was this thing saying… was it saying it was basically a god?

“Uh…” 

It laughed, “It’s okay, don’t think too hard about it. Most humans don’t get it.” Trixx turned back to studying my room, it’s white tail tipped in black twisting as they studied the room.

“Okay, why are you here then? You’re like, a god right?”

“I’m a kwami!” Trixx spun around, “And I’m here because I’ve picked you as my next guardian mademoiselle… uh, what’s your name?”

Of course this was absolutely ridiculous, a mini god just appeared in my room declaring I’m its guardian, then asks me what my name was. Brilliant, just brilliant.

“I’m Jasmine. What does being a guardian mean?”

Trixx gave a little bow, “Hello then Jasmine. Fear not, I shall explain all!” It’s stomach growled, “After I eat. So, eggs?”

I got them eggs.

After Trixx ate their eggs, they settled down on a pillow and looked at me expectantly. 

“So, what’s a guardian?” I sat down across from them.

“An excellent question!” Trixx grinned and suddenly there was a figure in the room.

“AH,” I threw a knife at it, (I knew all these knives would come in handy one day), but the knife went right through the person. 

Trixx cackled, “It’s just an illusion kit, my last guardian in her hero form.”

“Hero form?” 

The figure had a flute held in her hand, her outfit streamlined, nothing loose except the tail and ears, faint claws glinted on her hands and white and black were the predominant colors. It wasn’t skin tight, but it was still sleek, stylish almost.

“This is what you’ll do!” Trixx flit up to hover in front of me, “You’ll use my power to accomplish the duties of my miraculous and ensure the safety of spirits.”

---------

Workers Report

So we had this big order, like huge order, and Geoffrey was in charge of the details. 

But this other guy, Owain, he took the call from the client, Rene, when they changed some details. But he forgot to tell Geoffrey. So the order wasn’t changed, but like, it was a big change, they wanted a different color entirely.

So when the order was filled and it was wrong Rene was furious, and Owain claimed he had no idea what happened, so Geoffrey got fired.

Then I don’t know man, suddenly he was covered in weird purple stuff and then he was a rock giant!

It just came out of nowhere and he just started destroying things, it was scary.

-------------

So I headed to college, Trixx coming along for the ride.

And this is where things really got crazy.

---

I finished smoothing out the bedding my friend Ian had given me (He’s a snobby rich kid but he’s a loyal friend… and tends to buy anything I look at for more than three seconds), pausing to peer around my half of the room. It looked good, lots of art, plenty of pillows, and my secret stashes of chocolate set up.

My roommate was straightening up her bed still, she’d added some fairy lights to the bed frame. 

I hummed, double checking my plugs, then turned to my roommate. I have no idea what her name is but I do know she’s unfairly pretty.

She bounced on her toes, looking very cute, “Uh… Ciao! NO wait… Bonjour…? I’m Hazel-August Primo! I’m from Italia! Milan specifically! It’s uh… very nice to yeet you! I MEAN meet you! I am sorry, I’m really awkward and don’t talk much.” 

My roommate ducked her head, her hair covering her face.

I smiled shyly, “Konichiwa, or uh, haha, we’re both doing it. Bonjour I suppose. I’m Jasmine Vermillion, I’m originally from Britain but I’ve lived in Nihon for the last ten years.”

I bowed politely, “It’s very nice to meet you Hazel-san, I hope we can get along.”

She perked up instantly, “Japan! Oh my stars! How many cherry blossom blooms did you go to? Did you participate in the street fashion? What was your favorite part? Did you try Soba?”

She suddenly flushed, rubbing her neck, “Oh uh, Apologies. I got excited. It’s very nice to meet you too! Let’s do our best this year!” She bowed her head.

I couldn’t help but laugh, “I love the festivals, though I’ve only been to a few. They’re so beautiful. And I didn’t do much street fashion, but I did help some of my friends with theirs. My favorite part is undoubtedly the shrines, they’re all so pretty and there’s so much to do. And yes, I’ve had soba many times.”

I shrugged, smiling, “I’m glad you’re excited, I’m happy to be roommates with you uh,” And I may have already forgotten her name, “I guess we should finish setting up. I can go grab some groceries.”

I tugged my hair, my stomach twisting into knots again. Trixx snickered in my hair as I peered at my roommate, whose name I can't remember.

My roommate giggled, "I can come with if you would like an extra set of arms. Or I can stay back and start putting away pots, pans, and plates. My Mother sent some nice stuff from a military installation in India! Mostly plates and silverware but also some spice jars for keeping spices." 

I perked up, "that's great, I have a bunch of cups and jars and stuff, I can go get some groceries and you can put your stuff up, then I'll put up my stuff and you can put up the groceries?”

"Okay! Oh! Before I forget! I got you a gift! I only knew my roommate was a girl so I hope you like it!" The shorter girl smiled and offered me a beautiful bracelet, probably from Milan. 

It had seven gems embedded in it. Ones I recognized from Trixx’s lessons, Ruby, carnelian, yellow quartz, emerald, sapphire, amethyst and Obsidian. It was on a silver chain that was not really thick but not thin either. "I know it's kinda pricey but I really wanted to make a good impression. I hope you like it!" My roommate smiled up at me shyly.

It was amazing, I definitely loved it, though I couldn’t be rude.

"Oh! You didn't need to," I tried to push it back to her roommate, "I really couldn't accept, it's too much!"

"Please accept it! I think it'd be good for formal occasions! My Mother will flip if she finds out I bought something expensive because 'bambina, it's conducive to your therapy! You don't need to get people nice stuff to like you. Just be genuine and up front!' It's not getting you to like me as much as it is trying to make a really good first impression. I should explain. I have borderline personality disorder and I get anxious and sometimes I say stuff I don't mean and that's called splitting. So like one day I could be really nice and kind but then the next day I can be like mean and rude. Is this making sense? I'm sorry! I can return it!" 

"Oh, I just wouldn't want you to feel the need, but if you insist..." I smiled slightly as I accepted the bracelet, picking it up carefully with both hands.

 "I understand, I have ADHD which isn't nearly the same but does come with struggles, we'll work out issues as they come." 

 I carefully put the bracelet on my wrist, "it is a beautiful gift, thank you. I actually have one for you as well." 

I dug through my trunk for a moment before pulling out a plastic bag, I pulled out the present I had carefully wrapped in green. I offered it to my new roommate with both hands. 

She accepted it with a gentle smile. "Grazi! I appreciate it very much." I watched her unwrap the gift nervously. Compared to what she got me my gift to her was much simpler. 

She finished unwrapping it and just looked at the folded fan for a moment. I had picked it carefully, from the darkness of the wood to the beautiful purple fabric with the delicate white butterflies on it, I went for some simple symbolism, while focusing on the elegance. 

"This is beautiful. Did you know that Purple was a very hard color to produce? It was made from one type of sea slug and was very rare and usually reserved only for royalty." My roommate sounded in awe of the gift, which was a relief. 

I smiled, "I'm glad you like it, and yes I did. It symbolizes celebration and luxury in Nihon."

I let out a breath, "I very much like the bracelet that you gifted me, thank you for thinking of me." 

I turned and grabbed some grocery bags, the reusable kind, glancing at the clock. "I'll go grab groceries, anything you need?"

"It's a bit of an odd and pricey request, but could you get some Camembert? I'll pay you back!" My roommate looked hesitant. 

I nodded, "sure, as long as you don't mind me getting some eggs" ‘Or a few dozen.’ 

“Sure, go ahead.”

I grabbed my purse and headed out the door, slipping my shoes on as I left. "Be back in an hour or so"

 I headed out to grab some groceries so we could have food, we had a microwave! And yelped when a rock nearly took my head off.

I snapped around to gape at the stone golem in front of me. It was huge.

“You need to hide kit” Trixx hissed from my hair. 

I quickly ducked and slunk along the line of cars to slip into an alcove hidden by some bushes.

“What is that?” 

“It’s the butterfly! I can sense it’s power but I don’t know what it’s doing this, Nooroo always picks kindhearted people to hold their miraculous.”

I frowned, this isn’t good, “Okay, but what do we do about it?”

“You need to transform to fight it.”

I blanked, that thing, a monster attacking us, the butterfly was supposed to be a partner to me, that’s what Trixx said, but it was attacking, and how was I- what was I- This couldn’t- I can’t fight this thing. The ground spun, my head hurt, what was I supposed to do? Throw some illusions at it? FoxFire probably wouldn’t do anything to stone, Requiem was useless for this, how could FoxHunt help ? Honoring? Useless, Shift couldn’t help! My ears were ringing, I’m not a fighter holder, I’m a strategist! I can’t do this, Trixx should pick someone else, someone who could use the skills she gave, but I’m not it. I can’t do this, I just can’t.

“No, no Trixx how am I supposed to fight-”

“You don’t have to fight,” Trixx hovered in front of me, “You don’t have to fight, just gathering information will be enough. Stay hidden and find the corrupted item. It’ll be something that the golem has.”

“I- I- I-” My chest was tight, an asthma attack? 

“Focus on me, Jasmine, look at me, look at me.”

I looked at the little kwami, “Okay, looking? Good, now focus on my breathing, see, in, out, in, out,” The kwami’s tail flicked and suddenly there was a shape, growing slowly, “In,” it started shrinking, “out,” slowly my breathing steadied. 

In, out, in, out, in, out, I breathed, finally able to take a breath. I could hear again, the crashing farther away, but crying nearby, I needed to move. 

“You alright?” I blinked, looking at the kwami, they peered back nervously. 

“I- sorry, I guess my asthma acted up.” I scrambled for my inhaler.

“That wasn’t an asthma attack, that was a panic attack kit.” Trixx drifted forward to nuzzle my cheek, “It’s okay if you don’t want to go out and fight, it’s scary.”

“I-” The cries were loud, sobbing from nearby, people were hurt. I normally don’t particularly care, I have low empathy, but… I still couldn’t stand by and do nothing. This was a lot of pain, I needed to help somehow, “I just need to transform again?”

“Yep, only this time focus on the threat, your suit will change to match the situation.”

I blinked, “The suits change?”

Trixx giggled, “You didn’t think that dressy, dramatic, bright outfit was the one you’d fight or sneak in did you?”

“Can it change mid-battle?”

Trixx nodded, “Yeah, you can use your flute to change it, but it leaves you vulnerable while you change forms, and it will take a point from your miraculous, so it’s best to know what your intent is before transforming.”

I took a breath, the building shook, I could do this, focus on sneaking. 

“Trixx, Time to Hunt.”

The magic of the transformation swept over me, different from the previous times. Instead of rising to coat me in softness and loose cloth, it slid close to the skin, muted and steady. The two tails remained, but otherwise the style differed. 

I studied myself for a moment, touching the new mask, styled like a kitsune mask from a festival. The suit was more dark grey then white and black, but it was nice, the belt had multiple pockets, and the flute was tucked into a loop on the back.

I clutched the flute, and slipped out of the alcove. 

Slinking along the path I had a hard time breathing. The destruction was horrible. Buildings crushed, torn apart, people broken and bleeding. This was very real, and very dangerous.

I slid around and leapt up to a roof, studying the area. I was to gather information, couldn’t do much else right now.

I carefully followed the golem down the road as it yelled in rage. 

Then there was a child crying as it stumbled away from the golem. A young boy with blonde hair. The golem raised its fist.

The world blurred as I snatched the boy up and threw us into an alley. I spun to see the golem focusing on us. Damn.

“YOU, FOX”

A symbol appeared on its face, a butterfly huh? Well, looks like I need to trick the fool into breaking the item Trixx mentioned, or I’m doomed.

“GIVE ME YOUR EARRINGS!”

I blinked, earrings? Whatever.

“Fox Sense.” I murmured, twirling my flute. Breathing in as I focused on the enhanced senses. The dust was annoying, but I could see every detail of the golem, hear the cries from all around the area, and smell the dirt and fear and blood around me. 

More importantly, I noticed nothing on him that could be the item, but I also noticed his fist. One was open to attack me, the other, it was in a fist. As, I realized, it had been the whole time.

If the item wasn’t on the golem or visible in any way, then the golem must be holding it.

I crouched, gripping my flute tighter. The fox is not meant for battle, but that doesn’t mean I can’t win anyways. 

I raised the flute to my lips, blowing a soft tune, “Mirage” 

The area shimmered with light for a moment, and then it was a construction zone, with bars falling onto the golem, a rumble as a crane tilted.

“RAAA” The golem staggered, grabbing for the bars falling with both hands, a small piece of paper falling from his hand.

The bars shattered right before they could touch the golems hand. Shards falling as the crane fell towards it. The golem stumbled back, raising its hands to cover its head. 

I moved. I reached the paper, a strange black energy surrounding it. It shattered as soon as I stomped on it.

A little black butterfly pulled free, fluttering off.

Black energy bubbled around the golem, fading to reveal a man.

I blinked, ‘that...’

“Huh” My ponytail swung as I shook my head, “Weird.”

“Who are you?” A whisper caught my attention, the boy was staring.

“I’m....” Names were important, “Kitsune Neige.”

I swiped my flute to disperse the illusion and leapt up, pausing on the roof to look at the butterfly hurrying away. It still had black energy around it.

-----------

Time to Rest-

#Chapter one #Kitsune's Reveal and Stoneheart's Rage #Miraculous Fox News #Miraculously Better #Tale of the Misfit Heroes #Kitsune Neige #fox miraculous #Stoneheart #ML rewrite #sorta #This is the real canon

[inkdrawndreamer]

John Kramer may be a hypocritical serial killer with an unhealthy penchant for crafting, but I do have to give the man some props for good uniform design. Those robes? Sleek, easily recognizable, simple color palette, less likely to get caught on something than a cape is, and they look pretty cozy if I'm being honest. They're perfect to wear when delivering cryptic messages to potential victims, or when eating breakfast and doing a crossword puzzle while waiting for a SWAT team to arrive. And those gauntlets with the spring-loaded knives? Badass. I gotta admit, it's hard not to look intimidating while wearing a fancy cult robe and stabby jewelry. If nothing else, the man knew how to dress. 

#*with the exception of that disguise he had in VII with the backwards cap #that was...yeah #saw #saw film #John Kramer #clothes #horror #films #Clover muses #swearing

[starrys0nder]

@astronomicalnightmare

Shortly after getting Summer’s text K-173 walked into the starbucks carrying a couple bags of his own for the girl. The two of them had bonded instantly over their shared love of dogs and, though at times it was hard for him considering he’d lost his own Summer, he still found that he really enjoyed the redhead’s company. Without even knowing it she was helping him to get past some of his trauma. He’d likely never reveal that to her either but that didn’t make it any less true.

“Heya, Trouble. You conquered any worlds lately?” His words may hold a teasing edge to them but it was a genuine question, the smile on his face would hopefully make that clear. He really was curious how she’d been doing.

When he opened the first bag he smiled at the sight of all the dog toys and treats held within. The way to Kink’s good side was undeniably being good to his canine companions and Summer had been that from day one. Holding up a carrot shaped squeaky toy he remarked. “You know Odd’s gonna go wild for this.” The beauceron’s love of carrots was a bit infamous among most that knew him.

When he pulled the flamethrower out of the bag he gave a surprised laugh. He quickly shifted to hide the weapon away from the gaze of the other patrons. Kink wasn’t normally opposed to a fight but he had other plans today and while torching a coffee shop with Summer sounded fun he couldn’t miss them. “Oh, this is gorgeous! Did you make this?” He fidgeted with it a bit, checking out the functions of it and admiring the sleek finish. The first use he had planned for it? Clearing all that fucking snow back at the cabin away.

The starbucks gift card was met with another smile. You’re in luck Summer. He didn’t just like coffee. He needed the stuff to function! Kink held the card up, dipping his head in a nod. “Thank you. For all of this, Summer. I appreciate it.” A bit of a short sentiment but the fact he’d been smiling since meeting with her when normally he was the epitome of resting bitch face was testament to the fact that he really was touched.

They were rather like minded this holiday season in regards to gifts for each other. He’d included a bag for her pups too. Held within one of them were two vests for the dobermans. They were of his own design, similar to the one that Odd wore every day when out with him but without the pockets. They were bulletproof and damn near indestructible to help keep the dogs safe while Summer was engaged in a fight. Also included was a container of a balm to put on their paw pads. Another of his inventions. It would keep them safe from hot concrete, broken glass, and any spilled chemicals the canines might walk over without the annoyance of boots. For something a bit more fun for the dogs he’d added a bag of homemade venison chews for them and a few fresh thigh bones from a deer that had been taken down on his property. A bag of bloody bones made for a bit of an odd present but hey! They were for the dogs.

The gift for Summer had been a bit more of a challenge. Dogs were easy. Give them a bone and they’re pretty well guaranteed to love it. Teenage girls? Yeah, much harder to shop for.

Still. He’d tried. Held within her bag was a black leather moto jacket that he’d made. It had the same nanofiber defense mesh held in the lining that the dog’s vest and his own lab coats had. The girl would be kept safe from bullets, blades, and any claws from alien species. Lifting a hand as she pulled it free from the bag Kink ran his hand through his hair, clearing his throat a bit awkwardly as he explained. “Ahh.. I think it should fit ya alright. I used the same measurements I had for my Summer but um. If it doesn’t I can alter it for ya.”

A box beneath the jacket held a series of shimmering rainbow throwing knives. With the press of a tiny hidden button on the handle they would send them on a targeted course right for whatever she aimed at.

An envelope inside the bag held a Christmas card with a watercolor painting of her two dobermans playing in the snow on the front. Held within was a simple sentiment.

“Happy holidays, Trouble!”

#( *save ) #( *asks ) #c: astronomicalnightmare #[ i'll think of a good tag for summer lmao idk he just calls her trouble XD ] #[ anyway this got longer than i meant for it to bc i wanted to include his gifts to her as well in it since they met face to face! ] #( *christmas 2k18 ) #( *queue )

[kt041978]

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Alexa gives you the power to ask just about anything Alexa can respond to and allows you to interact with Alexa, your echo spot, or any other device that has an Alexa speaker. if that's not enough, they've added recording abilities beyond only asking it questions but also allowing them to record dictations and playback what is spoken or sung into their devices using skills offered by skills house. learn more at optimiseyourstore.com/alexa Smart Home The smart home is a new era of smart home products and services. The internet has changed the way we live, work, and relax in so many ways; now Amazon wants to change your daily routine with these smart home products that make life easier for you. Halo Amazon halo is a new fitness tracker with a color display that also has halo ring technology. It can be worn as an accessory or independent device and it syncs to your smartphone via Bluetooth. The device stays connected externally through the halo app, which gives you access to health metrics like calorie burn, heart rate readings along with other features such as sleep tracking (via halo sensor). Halo fitness is halo fitness’s subscription-based fitness version. It will offer personalized fitness plans, workouts, and metrics to its members. halo nutrition & halo sports are targeted at health-conscious individuals who want to join the halo membership family but don't already own a ring or fit-bit product. TV Amazon TV gives you access to thousands of movies and tv shows that are instantly available on the big screen through your echo device, fire tv stick or other supported devices such as Roku streaming player and chrome cast. Buy Hello TV Parental Controls with Alexa for Fire TV Stick 4K at only $49 - 83% off! View over 40 channels including local ABC & CBS affiliates, cable networks like NBC and FOX News, regional sports networks (like YES Network), Disney Channels, PBS channels with full 2-way multi-cast capabilities, streaming music stations like Sirius XM & Spotify and more. Set-top TV Guide is also included so you can access it at any time and easily change the channel to watch your favorite shows or find new shows! Amazon Prime Video Buy Better Call Saul Season 1 now – After a 10-year journey that left fans of the critically acclaimed Breaking Bad wondering if there would ever be a second season of the award-winning acclaimed show that centers around Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), Better Call Saul is a prequel set six years before Breaking Bad’s events. You can now follow Jimmy McGill as he learns to become a lawyer in downtown Albuquerque, NM by purchasing Season 1 for your Amazon Echo device! Instant TV: Buy Kens1 Apps anywhere without ads and save 25% - discount alert Check out Astro Amazon Astro is an Astro bot as it's also called and will be launched on amazon with a starting price of $399 that can allow you to see your house through its camera. You'll get the Astro in two color choices black or white, while I wouldn't mind having one since they have great reviews from previous users. Glow Amazon glow is a cool device for kids. This revolutionary gadget brings the fun of video calls and interactive games to any room in your home by creating an immersive experience that gives children more to comment on than just their day at school or church. It allows parents (and grandparents) to engage with their children’s lives, teach them new things, and get closer as a family doing so. Eero The eero product range consists of three eero eXTreme routers with different speed and performance options. A wall-mounted switch that provides internet access to the router, as well as an OTA extender. The initial price point includes 4 such units. Thermostat The thermostat is a smart device that would calculate the cooling efficiency and heating energy consumed. It also has sensors to measure temperature, humidity, air quality with an app (iOS or Android) which will help you know more about your house’s indoor climate. Doorbell Amazon's never-ending quest for a cheap doorbell solution is leading it to integrate motion sensors and automatic lighting features into its shiny new doorbell. The $49 blink video doorbell isn't exactly an inexpensive way to keep tabs on your front door, but the camera does come with some cool features including two-way audio from both inside or outside of the home (but since there’s no internal microphone, you can’t talk back). There are also alerts when someone pushes. Disney Amazon has been getting into a bunch of new games and technologies with its Echo devices. They have a Disney spinoff as well as a tower defense. Amazon is also trying to turn the amazon echo device into another television set by adding Disney content and other stuff we already use in our daily lives like touch screens or projectors, so this makes total sense that they want to extend their reach towards these things too. Floodlight The floodlight is one of the high-tech products by Amazon. The floodlight has a power capacity of 2000 lumens. Its huge light range covers up to 63 ft (18), 39 ft (-6), or 23 ft (9 meters). It can be tied in with motion detection systems which will trigger it only when something moves that triggered movement sensors. There are two versions: the first version works wireless, while you need to plug its cable into your smartphone via an incoming MFi adapter. Projector Amazon announced the projector that is a plaything for kids, but isn't it cool to have an interactive projector that you can use wherever and whenever? The device connects with your existing Wi-Fi network so you won’t need any other hardware or internet connection. It has an 8-inch screen size and at nearly half inches thick this is not something that you will want in a sleeping room where children are sleeping most of the time! With Amazon glow, there's no more need for clumsy lamps, candles, or blindfolds. Amazon created a new project to help with sleep in rooms during children's bedtime hours. Like many other electronic entrepreneurs did before him, Bezos invented the lack at least 22 years ago and patented it himself long back. He calls it "the world's most polite light". Prime Video Prime video is the first subscription streaming video on amazon prime. It is offering ad-free access to hundreds of thousands of movies and tv episodes including original series. Like the BuzzFeed click show, which has been described as a cross between prime video and Nestle's yummy mummies channel. It includes premium exclusive programs. Such as "the walk," starring Brad Pitt(Bradley cooper), oscar winner Brandon rudd(joseph Curtis), ed sheer (ed Thompson), Christina Aguliar (Chris Ebert), and Drew Barrymore(Jared Leto). The exclusive episode titled 'the stakes' will be available to those who subscribe to the "8 funds" membership. Prime has all the movies you could ever want. Gadgets Tata, the Indian technology startup that makes electric vehicles, is launching its first smart home gadgets in India. Tata’s products come with advanced voice-powered AI capabilities. It will compete against those from companies like Google and Samsung to become a part of your connected house. The new product lineup also includes smart locks that may be connected to doors by Bluetooth/Buttons/Locks or via WiFi connection. Echo Show Amazon Echo Show is a smart speaker manufactured by Amazon. The echo show has 8 GB internal memory. This can be expanded using the microSD card slot located on its bottom side. It also comes with either white or black color options. It supports Alexa voice commands while connected to an echo show HD display unit via direct connection of LAN cable. That connects the two devices together to form an “Alexa ecosystem”. Home Security Amazon has launched some home security products. A new security camera, the Ring Alarm system is a home security device that lets users manage their homes via an app on their smartphone or tablet. The floodlight of Ring would be helpful to track any activity in front of it and send alerts by using Amazon Alexa. It also comes with a bundle for 3 years worth $199 which works as their cloud storage service from amazon. Security System There is a security system that can prevent dogs, who are known to be dangerous and harmful animals. These systems create an alarm during the time when a dog enters the premises of the home where it has not been authorized. This system will force them to go back without entering again. Thus causing harm or loss to anyone at that particular place. Humans have their own security system too like fingerprints. So do everyone else but only humans pay attention to the security system of others whether they exist or not. Dogs are a threat to humans who live alongside them and use nature for their benefit. Make no efforts on it, but dogs must be labeled as dangerous animals. So that they can be kept away from human habitats. Ring Alarm is an alternative alarm system. It has hands-free video monitoring with Ring Video Doorbell cameras for defense against thieves (both indoors in your house, home office, etc. It is also for outdoors near your neighbors' doors. Blog Conclusion: The future of Amazon is bright. It is a fast-growing e-commerce company and will continue to dominate the online shopping market. Amazon is also known for its FBA program. This helps businesses save money on their products by storing them in warehouses. Those manage by Amazon. One of the latest additions to this lineup is a new product called Alexa. It can be controlled using voice commands. Alexa can help you find out information about different items. Such as when it was last updated or how many times it has been rated by customers. This can be helpful for those who want to know if an item they bought from Amazon really holds up to its claims. Also, it has received good reviews from other users. Visit Amazon by clicking on the below link : https://amzn.to/3F6vqwf   Read the full article

#Amazon #amazonbestdeals #amazondeals #amazonfestiveseason #amazonsale2021 #NewAmazonProducts

[yiercitycutlery]

What is a complete set of knife sets, what kind of knives are included in YIERCITY’s premium knife set?

Just like men don’t understand women’s lipstick numbers, most of us can’t distinguish the composition and classification of knives. Here is a brief introduction to the different tool supplies. Which knives are included in the general knife set?

There’s tons of factors to consider when it comes to deciding on the best kitchen knife set. Even folks who are already knee-deep in the world of knives can find it overwhelming, so for the uninitiated it can be absolutely daunting.

So what’s the best knife set? Well… it’s complicated.

First off, the question you should ask yourself is: what kind of knife set am I looking for? Whether you’re looking for steak knives, paring knives, slicing knives, or even more specific types like the santoku knife, this should be front and center of your thought process when looking for a  nice knife set.

The quality of the blade is another important factor. You want a sharp, sturdy blade that will last. The price is also involved here, as the quality of the materials will inevitably go hand-in-hand with the cost of the set.

We’ll show you a little different types of kitchen knife sets, and tell you our picks for best knife sets from each one. Note that some of these knife sets may qualify for more than one “category” at a time. We’ll make note of it when they do.

General chef kitchen knives can be introduced from the following categories.

◎Chef’s knife

This is a multi-purpose knife well-suited to most tasks. A chef’s knife will be thicker towards the heel, making it perfect for hard root vegetables, potatoes and meats.

◎Santoku knife

The Santoku knife originated in Japan and is a general purpose knife. It has a thinner blade than a chef’s knife and is most effective when dicing, chopping and mincing.

◎Paring knife

This small and nimble knife is ideal for fiddly tasks such as peeling, coring and finely slicing.

◎Serrated paring knife

These knives look very similar to a paring knife, but have a serrated edge. They’re great for cutting tomatoes and citrus fruits.

◎Utility knife

A smaller version of a chef’s knife, best used when a chef’s knife is too big for the task at hand. Ideal for carving chicken breast or slicing small vegetables and fruit.

◎Carving knife

Best for slicing joints of meat and poultry — with the wrong knife you risk shredding, tearing and hacking at the flesh.

◎Bread knife

Designed with a sharp serrated edge to easily cut through crusts and rusks. They’re also great for cutting fruits with fibrous skins, such as pineapples.

◎Peeling knife

Similar in appearance to a paring knife but the blade curves inwards. This makes removing tough skins from fruit and vegetables much more simple.

◎Cleaning knives

While some brands claim their knives are dishwasher safe, we’d always advise against this to keep them in top condition. The best practise is to wash knives in hot, soapy water and then dry them with a tea towel, rather than leaving them to air. We do always test dishwasher-safe claims, regardless.

◎Sharpening knives

A sharp knife is a safe knife. Those that are blunt or unsharpened require more force to cut, which increases the likelihood of slipping and causing injury.

Here are a number of different knife sharpening methods from tools to old-school stones:

◎Chef’s Knives

The chef’s knife is one of the most versatile knives to have in your kitchen. With its broad and sharp blade, it is a multi-purpose knife used for a variety of kitchen tasks.

YIERCITY includes all of the above knives, which are fully in line with your life needs. Whether you are a novice in the kitchen or a skilled chef, you can find the knives you need in YIERCITY’s premium knives.

◇Best Value Knife Set. YIER High Quality 15 Pieces German High Carbon Stainless Steel Knife Set

Best Value Knife Set On Sale! Help you complete all the tool lists, super cost-effective and convenient.

You will get: a steak knife, a slicing knife, a bread knife, a Santoku knife, a utility knife, a paring knife, a kitchen scissors, a fruit knife, a sharpener and a beautiful transparent acrylic Tool holder.

YIERCITY KNIFE

Material: X50Cr15 Superior high-Carbon stainless steel

· High quality forged blades, which are made of German stainless steel, W-Nr. 1.4116.

· It contains 0.45 to 0.55% carbon, 14 to 15% chromium, 0.5 to 0.8% molybdenum and 0.1 to 0.2% vanadium.

· The purpose of the molybdenum alloy is to increase the resistance to pitting of the material.

YIERCITY’S best value series is a kind of basic kitchen knife set, razor-sharp knives sporting a sleek icy-cold look. This is a great set of four steak knives that look and handle just great. They compliment any stainless steel cutlery set you may already own aiming for a more minimalist aesthetic for those who prefer to keep things looking simple and clean. The sleek design would be perfect beside any steel kitchen appliances or other stainless steel cutlery you may already own. This makes it so that your knives will pair well with any decor. And this great set comes with a stunningly designed Manchurian ash-wood storage bloc.

PROS:

· Premium blade: 7-layer high-carbon, high-chromium 10CR15MOV steel with added cobalt.

· High quality white resin handle enclosed in aluminum mesh.

· Knives feature a “frosted” look that is just really cool. (Get it?)

CONS:

· The design is awesome, but the opposite of flashy. Think about what you’re looking for!

#chef knife set #carbon steel kitchen knife set #chinese kinfe #japanese knife #Germany knife

[asfeedin]

Father’s Day Gift Guide | Serious Eats

Father’s Day Gift Guide | Serious Eats

Le Creuset Cake Stand

If you’ve ever been given a homemade birthday cake, return the favor by buying your favorite baker this iconic cake stand. Its heavy base keeps cakes secure and makes all types of decorating techniques a breeze.

Magnetic Knife Rack

Not only do magnetic knife strips save space, they also look pretty badass hanging on your wall. They’ll keep your knives from rubbing up against other utensils, which can make them dull (and can be dangerous, too).

Egg Cups

Any dad who loves soft-boiled eggs deserves the perfect cup to eat them from. These sturdy stoneware Le Creuset cups come in a range of beautiful colors. They’re totally classic, which is a good thing because they’ll also last for generations to come.

Kitchen-Helper Stool

Daniel’s one-and-a-half-year-old son has a new and urgent interest in whatever’s happening up on the kitchen counter that he can’t see. He begs to be picked up, but that means Daniel can cook with only one hand, which, while kind of, sort of, maybe possible, is extremely difficult. Plus, the kid is heavy. It’s time to add a learning tower to the kitchen so he can stand and watch, sometimes even help, while Daniel continues to get dinner ready. This one is great because it folds up for easy storage.

Taketsuru Pure Malt Japanese Whisky

Anyone who appreciates Scotch (or good spirits in general) will embrace Nikka’s exquisite whiskies. The Taketsuru Pure Malt is named for the company’s founder, who studied in Scotland before bringing whisky distilling back to Japan. This bottling has a slight fruity character, with lingering sherry on the finish.

Meat Cleaver

This meat cleaver has a well-balanced weight, sharp edge, and solid construction—a boon since a lot of more-affordable cleavers like this one feel very cheap and after repeat use get wobbly around the handle.

Smeg Toaster

After years of putting up with a cheap toaster that I picked up at the supermarket, I recently upgraded to this super fancy Italian job in cool mint. It’s sleek design and soothing pastel color transform the kitchen’s most boring appliance into a statement piece, and it really does a good job with the toast itself. Plus, I mean, it’s really dang pretty. If nothing else, you owe it to yourself to read this toaster’s priceless reviews.

Simple Coffee Maker

The Bonavita is one of the faster models we tested, and it earned high scores in nearly all of our tastings. A single switch governs all of its operations, making the brewing process incredibly simple.

Wüsthof Classic Carving Knife

This knife features an extremely sharp edge; a well-balanced, comfortable handle; and plenty of flexibility. It carves through roast turkey like butter, leaving very little meat stuck to the bones. It has a composite handle and a full tang to offer balance and support, with a bolster that is lightly angled and slim enough to make gripping the blade easy.

REC TEC Wood Pellet Grill

REC TEC offers high-quality pellet smokers featuring excellent digital controllers and sturdy construction. With a 40-pound pellet hopper, a 680-square-inch cook surface, and nine inches of headroom, the REC TEC 680 is a large, smartly constructed pellet smoker. It also looks awesome.

12-Inch Stainless-Steel Locking Tongs

Indoors, I prefer the control that a shorter, seven- or nine-inch set of tongs gives me. When flipping a dozen steaks over a blazing-hot fire, though, it’s better to keep your distance. I use these OXO Good Grips Stainless Steel Tongs at home, and their solid construction has lasted for a good six years of heavy (and I mean heavy) use so far.

Culina Stainless Steel Grilling Basket

A good grill basket should be durable, with a tight enough weave to allow very small foods to be cooked without risk of getting lost. Finally, it’s worth hunting down one that’s sizable enough to cook large batches of food in one go. One of our favorites is the simple Culina stainless steel basket. The metal mesh keeps even the smallest food items up on the grill grate where they belong. You can even toast or smoke nuts in it.

Set of Two Rectangular Grill Grates

If you’ve ever used a gas grill and grown frustrated with unfixable hot and cool spots and overall weak performance, this tool is for you. Made from hard anodized aluminum, the GrillGrate system sits directly on your existing grate, amplifying and evening out the heat, which allows for more even cooking, flare-up resistance, and exceptional sear marks.

A Nice Apron

There’s form, and then there’s function. The aprons from Tilit are great on both fronts. Made from waxed cotton, they offer breathability along with water resistance, but they’re also damned handsome. Several NYC restaurants have commissioned custom apron designs from the company for their chefs and cooks, and I’m pretty psyched to wear one of these bad boys at home, too.

My Mexico City Kitchen: Recipes and Convictions

Mexico City is one of Sasha’s favorite cities in the world, and he’s traveled there a fair amount with his family. They always make sure to have lunch at Chef Gabriela Cámara’s restaurant Contramar when they’re in the DF. Her food is bright, light, and absolutely delicious, and her newly published cookbook is everything.

Presto Tilt-N-Fold Griddle

Presto’s Tilt-n-Fold model is very simple to set up and operate, and it has a compact design that makes it easy to store in kitchen cabinets when not in use. It has a large, smooth, nonstick cooking surface that heats mostly evenly, can be set at an angle to drain grease, and is easy to clean. We love the price, too.

KitchenAid Food Grinder Attachment

The great thing about buying a meat grinder attachment is that you already know that the hardest-working part of your grinder—the motor—is going to be a workhorse that can power through even the toughest grinding projects. Stand mixer attachments are a great option if you make a lot of sausage. You can grind the meat directly into the bowl, then attach the bowl to the machine and immediately start mixing it with the paddle to develop protein. It’s a real time-saver.

La Venenosa Sierra de Jalisco Raicilla

If your dad likes to be on the cutting edge of what’s cool, impress him with a whole type of spirits he may not have tried. Raicilla is distilled from agave, like tequila and mezcal, but few people have heard of it, since it only entered American markets in 2014. Sierra de Jalisco has a vibrant acidity, with earthy-fruity-vegetal elements playing around it. If Dad’s a fan of funky mezcals, he’ll enjoy raicilla’s incredible complexity.

Affordable Mandoline Slicer

A great mandoline will rapidly make photo-worthy cuts of your favorite vegetables, whether it’s thin slices of radishes for a salad or potatoes for a gratin. This basic OXO slicer has three thickness settings and perches over a bowl to easily catch the slices as they fall.

Brooklyn Bartender

If your dad has a taste for a well-made cocktail, but isn’t that likely to take off on a bar crawl in Brooklyn, this book is the perfect solution. It features 300 innovative and classic drink recipes from the best bars of the borough; every cocktail I’ve made so far has been killer. The drinks Carey Jones has selected aren’t dumbed down at all, but, for the most part, you’re not looking at mile-long ingredient lists, either.

World’s Fair Barbecue Rub

Ariel discovered this spice mix 11 years ago, and it’s still one of her favorite things to give as a gift. It’s a perfect blend of everyday ingredients (shallots, garlic, paprika, and sea salt), but with unusual flavor notes from grains of paradise. She buys it by the pound to dump on meat, seafood, and even eggs, but you can start by picking it up a reasonably sized jar or bag.

Julep Cups

I don’t often recommend single-function items, but for the cocktail enthusiast, a couple of julep cups really are fun to have. There���s nothing like holding that metal cup frosted with ice on a blisteringly hot summer day—glass just doesn’t pull the effect off in the same way. If the recipient doesn’t have an ice crusher, check out my Lewis bag suggestion as well.

PDT Cocktails App

At drink o’clock, wefind myself turning to this app. Enter all the bottles you have at home when you start, and the app will tell you all of the drinks you can make, with recipes straight from New York’s famous PDT cocktail lounge. You can also search for drinks of a certain type or cocktails created by a favorite bartender, and save favorites for making again. (To give an app as a gift, look for the arrow to the right of the “buy” icon.)

The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

A New York Times best seller! The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science by J. Kenji López-Alt is his column from this very website, blown up to 900-plus pages (and seven-plus pounds) of concentrated culinary science. Gorgeous color photos, detailed how-tos, and elaborate explainers cover ingredients, technique, gear, and the secrets of the universe underneath it all. May include puns.

Big Ice Cube Tray

If you like your whiskey with a giant ice cube, then you’ll really be into Mammoth Cubes—unlike ice cube trays from current competitor brands, these make eight cubes (not six) and are actually stackable, so they don’t require a section unto themselves in your freezer.

Wooden Pizza Peel for Launching Pizzas

Wooden peels absorb excess moisture and have a rougher surface than metal, which means that your stretched and topped pizza dough will remain loose and easy to launch far longer, saving you from potential pizza-spilled-all-over-the-oven accidents. Though there are cheaper options around, I love my Perfect Peel Baker’s Board, handcrafted to last a lifetime from gorgeous solid cherrywood. They’ll even put your initials or logo on it if you’d like!

Espresso Cups

Espresso cups make a nice gift on their own for coffee fiends. But when they’re Le Creuset, they’re even better—mostly because everything from the French heritage brand is aesthetically pleasing and built to last. Oh, and these cups might be the most affordable Le Creuset pieces on the market. So, if you want in on the trend for a moderate price, they make a good starter item.

Lever Corkscrew

The OXO worked on every bottle and cork we tested it with. The two-step motion—push down, then pull up—yanks the cork out in about two seconds. Repeat the process, and the cork drops free of the opener. The capable foil cutter clips into the body of the tool.

Now & Again: Go-To Recipes, Inspired Menus + Endless Ideas for Reinventing Leftovers

This cookbook by Julia Turshen, author of Small Victories and Feed the Resistance, is full of simple, delicious meals for everyday eating, parties, and holidays. Better yet, each one includes a bunch of suggestions for how to remake it as leftovers. It’s a trove of great, creative ideas, and a must for any bookworm.

Misen Chef’s Knife

This is the holy grail of inexpensive chef’s knives: incredible quality and design, high-end materials, perfect balance, and a razor-sharp edge.

Uuni 2S Pizza Oven

There are a lot of custom-designed pizza ovens out there in various price ranges. I reviewed a bunch of them, and one of my favorites was the Uuni 3. It consists of a small stainless steel box with a pizza stone set inside it. You load up a hopper on the rear of the unit with wood pellets, light it up with a torch or lighter fluid, and let it preheat. About 15 minutes later, you’re ready to cook. This little powerhouse hits temperatures in excess of 900°F and bakes up Neapolitan-sized pizzas in just 60 to 90 seconds.

Serving bowl

There’s no such thing as too many serving bowls, and this simple two-tone piece goes with virtually everything. At 11.5 inches across, it’s the perfect size for dad’s favorite side dishes; in my house, it’s go-to for salads, roasted vegetables, mashed potatoes, and pasta.

AeroGarden Harvest

Cooking with fresh herbs makes every recipe better. Cooking with fresh herbs that you grew all by yourself makes life better. The AeroGarden takes the guesswork out of growing herbs inside, with an automated light to keep your parsley and thyme thriving and weekly reminders for water and nutrients. Just prepare yourself for epic amounts of basil.

Welding Gloves for Grilling

After countless failed grilling mitts, we got ourselves a pair of welding gloves to use when grilling or smoking and never looked back. With great heat protection, dexterity, and construction, these are a necessity for every backyard cook.

Chocolate-Hazelnut Spread

Marco Colzani is a great Italian bean-to-bar chocolate maker, with a number of excellent products under his brand, Amaro. But it’s his spreads that have Ed addicted, particularly the Cacao Nocciole, or hazelnut-and-chocolate variety. Imagine a Nutella-like substance, but made with the freshest roasted hazelnuts and extra-chocolaty high-quality cocoa powder.

Zojirushi Rice Cooker

A couple years ago, I managed to convince my wife of the necessity of buying a rice cooker. Not just any rice cooker: a Zojirushi. The only concession I was willing to make had to do with the size, since she wisely noted that we didn’t have the counter space for any rice cooker at all, let alone the kind of rice cooker that I had in mind. So I bought a little guy that fits, max, three cups of rice, but really is only usable for about two and a half. She’s since come around to the indisputable excellence of the cooker, and she loves everything about it, from the wonderful rice it makes to the “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” it plays when you turn it on.

Small Baking Steel Griddle

These days, I keep this solid slab of steel permanently atop one of the burners of my stove. One side has a pebbled surface—ideal for getting extra-crisp, better-than-a-baking-stone crust on homemade pizzas. And, unlike a baking stone, this thing is going to last forever. The griddle arrives as shiny steel, but with just a few uses, it seasons up into a dark, slick nonstick surface that Dad can use for pancakes, eggs, hamburgers, grilled cheese, and more.

KitchenAid Pasta Attachment

This is hands down the KitchenAid attachment I use most often. It takes all of the frustration and fussiness out of making fresh pasta, and, unlike the manual alternatives out there, it’s incredibly easy and efficient to operate on your own. Hello, homemade ravioli!

Mediterranean Power Snacks Gift Box

There’s nothing worse than a hangry family member. Make sure Dad always has a snack on hand with this Mediterranean-themed gift box, brimming with Spanish snacks like chorizo, crunchy almonds, crackers, and fig cake.

Charcuterie

Ruhlman and Polcyn do a great job of demystifying one of the more abstruse cooking arts, and, while charcuterie may seem daunting, it can be gratifyingly easy. Start simple, with the pancetta, confit, rillettes, and duck prosciutto, and you’ll find yourself with a mold-inoculated curing chamber in no time.

The One True Barbecue

Race relations, religion, the New South versus the Old: These are just a smattering of the heavy issues Rien Fertel writes about through the lens of—well—smoked meat in this new book. And, while you might be thinking, “Oh, man, another book about barbecue?”, this one stands out from the crowd thanks to Fertel’s superb writing and storytelling skills. In a book that’s part culinary history, part personal narrative, and part tale of an American road trip, Fertel travels throughout the South, documenting the men who have long stood behind the fires practicing the time-consuming pursuit of whole hog barbecue—the ones who have been keeping alive the embers of what once seemed like a dying art, and the ones who are inspiring a new generation of pitmasters today.

Mastering Pasta: The Art and Practice of Handmade Pasta, Gnocchi, and Risotto

If you’re looking for one definitive primer on pasta-making in its myriad forms, this is it: Superlative step-by-step photographs take the guesswork out of potentially intimidating fundamentals, like mixing and kneading dough, as well as more intricate tasks, like pleating teardrops of corn- and cheese-stuffed culurgiònes. Better yet, author Marc Vetri arms you with the tools and knowledge that allow for controlled, intelligent experimentation and exploration before sending you into the fray.

Ice Cream Maker

Homemade ice cream tastes better than almost anything you can buy in a store, and it’s a snap to make. This ice cream maker, from Cuisinart, is all the gear you need: an easy-to-use workhorse that makes delicious ice cream every time. The simple construction means that there are few moving parts to break, and the wide mouth at the top makes it simple to add mix-ins and scoop out your ice cream when it’s at its fresh, creamy best.

Salt Cellar

Proper seasoning is one of the most important parts of cooking, and if you’re still using plain table salt from (heaven forbid!) a saltshaker, you’re shooting yourself in the food. Using kosher salt from a salt cellar lets you feel exactly how much salt is getting into your food, whether it’s a tiny pinch or a big ol’ wallop.

Lewis Bag

If you’re following my advice to buy someone julep cups, you might as well go all the way and grab a canvas Lewis bag, too: It’s used to smash ice into a fine powder with a mallet. Unless, of course, the person you’re buying for already has an ice crusher.

Vacuum Sealer

Know someone who’s interested in sous vide cooking? They’re gonna want this. And it’s handy for way more than just sous vide cooking. A vacuum sealer makes it really easy to save meats or other foods in the freezer, and it keeps air (read: freezer burn) off it all. The Oliso sealer uses a unique resealable-bag system, which means far less wasted plastic than a conventional cut-and-seal vacuum sealer.

Electric Countertop Pressure Cooker

A pressure cooker is a cooking vessel that just keeps on giving: Once you discover the time-saving feats it’s capable of, you’ll never look back. The good ones aren’t cheap, but man, is it ever worth having one. A countertop electric model gives you set-it-and-forget-it convenience. With the Breville Fast Slow Pro Cooker, not only do you have complete control over your pressure cooking (including any pressure level from 1.5 to 12 psi), you also have a slow cooker and a rice cooker built right in. It’ll even sear meat for stews.

Wusthof Classic Chef’s Knife

If you’re dead set on a traditional German knife profile—characterized by a more curved blade that’s bigger and heavier than the Japanese options—the Wüsthof Classic continues to be a stalwart. It weighs more than most of the other knives tested, giving it a solid and sturdy feel, but it still handles well and has a sharp edge.

Introduction to Japanese Cuisine: Nature, History and Culture

The Japanese Culinary Academy has released a series of textbooks about Japanese cuisine and technique, and every one of them is gorgeous. It’s the ideal gift for a dad with an interest in Japanese cooking.

Cynar 70

Cynar (pronounced chee-NAHR) is often identified by the artichoke on the label, but that’s just one of the many flavors you’ll find in this complex liqueur. And, while we’re fans of the rich, sweet, and vegetal 1950s original, we’re really excited about the new Cynar on the block. Cynar 70 is 35% alcohol instead of 16.5%, and the extra booze makes a marked difference, rendering the liqueur a bit less sweet and accentuating its bold, spicy flavors. If Dad likes Negronis or other bitter drinks, this is a great choice for a gift.

Dyson Handheld Vacuum

Dad keeps his kitchen spotless because even just one crumb will summon all those Florida critters. This handheld vacuum (which I have, use, and swear by myself) ensures zero crumbs left behind, whether it’s hanging in that small space under the dishwasher or the crevice between the stove and the cabinets.

Anova Precision Cooker

Sous vide cooking—cooking foods in vacuum-sealed pouches in precisely controlled water baths—is no longer relegated to fancy restaurant kitchens. The Anova Precision Cooker is the best home water-bath controller on the market, with an easy-to-use interface, Bluetooth support, rock-solid construction, a sleek look, and an affordable price tag to boot.

Anson Mills Grits

It may sound nuts to mail-order cornmeal and grits, given that they’re found on any supermarket shelf. But I’d argue that you haven’t experienced the best cornbread, grits, or other classic Southern dishes until you’ve had them made with the kind of high-quality stuff Anson Mills is selling. It’ll change how you understand those foods and what they can be.

ThermoWorks Thermapen

The Cadillac of kitchen thermometers is indispensable when roasting meat, cooking steaks, making candy, deep-frying, or at any other time precise temperature control is needed. With a big display and a blazing-fast measuring time of under two seconds, you won’t find a better, easier-to-use thermometer out there.

Baratza Virtuoso Coffee Grinder

It’s not exactly cheap, but this burr grinder does an admirable job of grinding coffee for espresso, pourover, or drip, all at a significantly lower price point than similarly performing competitors.

Craighill Trophy Bottle Opener

We wouldn’t normally spend $9 on a bottle opener, let alone $95. But this beautiful creation from Craighill, made by Niki’s good friend from college, is both sculptural and functional, just as the website proclaims. When it’s not opening bottles, use it to decorate your coffee or dining table, or even as a paperweight on your desk.

Weber Spirit E330 Liquid Propane Gas Grill

The Spirit E330 was introduced last year to replace the E320. The two models are identical except that the 330 adds a 7,500-BTU sear burner between the left and middle main burners. Sear burners are one of our favorite extras for gas grills. You’ll love turning this baby up to 11 when searing steaks and burgers.

Miracle-Gro Twelve Indoor Growing System

After previously lauding Aerogardens for how easy they make it to grow herbs at home (and how having a constant supply of fresh herbs has changed her cooking), Ariel’s upgraded to this larger system from Miracle-Gro. The increased size—it’s about as big as a side table—and bright lights allow you to grow a bounty of lettuces, herbs, and other greens, and you can program the app to turn the lights off and on according to your schedule. An expensive but excellent gift for anyone who loves fresh produce and fears their own black thumbs.

Leave-In Dual-Probe Thermometer

The Smoke is designed for grillers and barbecuers, but it’s a precise two-probe thermometer that can be calibrated and is just as handy indoors. Use the meat probe to gauge the temperature inside a roast and the ambient probe to track the smoker or grill’s temperature.

Tiffin

I’m a sucker for bentos, tiffins, and other tidy ways to carry lunch to the office, and the fact that I don’t technically have an office to carry lunch to anymore has only slightly dampened my enthusiasm. This two-layer tiffin is neat and attractive without being too cutesy, and it’s small enough that it won’t occupy too much space in a shared fridge. In the warmer months, it’ll do just as well for packing sandwiches and individual portions of salad or fresh fruit for a picnic.

Beefeater Burrough’s Reserve Gin

Burrough’s Reserve is a rare thing indeed: a gin you can enjoy neat. It’s distilled in founder James Burrough’s original copper pot still, then rested in barrels that once held the aromatic aperitif wine Lillet, picking up a light straw color and a touch of oak. The barrel-aging mellows the familiar juniper-citrus character of Beefeater just a bit, for a spirit that’s smooth and satisfying. It makes a superior Martini or Vesper, but it may be at its most appealing served solo in a chilled glass.

Pistachio Spread

Since first getting his hands on a jar of this pistachio spread, Sasha hasn’t shut up about it. Made from Sicilian pistachios, olive oil, sugar, and sea salt, it’s sweet, slightly salty, incredibly creamy, and just flat-out delicious. While it’s not cheap, this is one of those specialty products that are actually worth the price tag, and it makes a great gift. Spread it on bread, drizzle it over ice cream, or just eat it by the spoonful straight from the jar.

Stainless Steel Food Scale With Pull-Out Display

A good digital scale is an essential tool for bakers or home charcuterie makers. The OXO Food Scale comes with an easy-to-clean removable stainless steel weighing surface, great accuracy and precision, and a pullout backlit display to make measuring simple, even for large or unwieldy items.

Mixing Glass

This hand-blown and -etched mixing glass from Japan looks stunning on a bar cart and even better in action, whether you’re stirring a Negroni, a Martini, or a Manhattan. Mixing glasses made from two parts joined together sometimes split at the seam, but this version, made in one piece with a beaker-like spout, can stand up to heavy use.

Stovetop Pressure Cooker

I tested dozens of stovetop pressure cookers before settling on Kuhn Rikon’s Duromatic. It has a heavy sandwiched-aluminum-and-steel base that gives you even heat and a pressure gauge that makes telling exactly how much pressure has built up inside visual and intuitive.

Tojiro Fujitora Honesuki

Over the course of his career, Daniel has slowly built up a decent collection of both traditional and Western-style Japanese knives. Next on his list is a honesuki—a small, triangular butchery knife that tapers to a fine point. It’s designed for breaking down chickens and other small pieces of meat. The blade isn’t meant to cut through bone, but instead to deftly slide through meat and connective tissue, and carve its way between joints.

Best Poultry Shears

Oxo’s poultry shears include an easy to engage and disengage locking mechanism, a looped handle that won’t allow greasy hands to slip when squeezing hard, and a take-apart hinge for thorough cleaning. But what really makes it our top pick is that it’s one of the only pairs of shears we tested that can both snip through squirmy skin and cleave through bone. If poultry shears can’t do that, you might as well not own a pair.

Sant’Eustachio Whole Coffee Beans

Sant’Eustachio is a coffee-bar institution in the center of Rome, and it’s where Sasha’s life as a coffee drinker began when he was a kid. The baristi at Sant’Eustachio perform coffee alchemy at espresso machines outfitted with custom-made metal partitions that keep their methods secret from curious onlooking customers. He always tries to bring back a bag of Sant’Eustachio coffee for his father every time he visits the Eternal City, but now he can just order some online. How convenient!

Rice, Noodle, Fish

Warning: Reading this book might lead to the purchase of some very expensive plane tickets. The Roads & Kingdoms crew will get you hungry for a journey to Japan: for onigiri basted with chicken fat, juicy one-bite gyoza, milky-white tonkotsu ramen broth, and briny sea urchin. Is Japan the best place on earth to eat? This book will convince you that it is.

Buttery Popcorn Seasoning

Ariel’s dad has long been a movie-theater-popcorn fanatic—he’s been known to go into the theater just to get popcorn, then leave. This popcorn seasoning will cut out the middleman, allowing her dad to make his very own cinema-worthy popcorn right at home.

Dark-Chocolate Sea Salt Almonds

You can find dark chocolate and almonds combined in any number of candy bars. What distinguishes these delicious nuggets from Nuts.com is the generous sprinkling of sea salt embedded in the thick chocolate shell. Just be sure not to open them for a taste—once you’ve had one, the rest will never make it to Dad.

Insulated Beverage Bottle

The Hydro Flask is designed to keep water cold for hours on end, but its vacuum-insulated walls don’t discriminate between beverages: The 32-ounce flask can also accommodate a full bottle of wine, or a big batch of margaritas. It’s ideal for picnics and trips to the beach, no matter what you’re drinking.

Cast Iron Skillet

Old cast iron has a perfectly smooth nonstick surface that’s surprisingly easy to maintain. You can sear, bake, roast, braise, stew, and deep-fry in it, and there’s nothing more thoughtful than a gift that you have to expend a bit of effort to find (check out eBay, yard sales, and flea markets). Of course, these modern Lodge pans will do in a pinch if vintage isn’t in the cards.

Frankies 457 Olive Oil

Fancy olive oil always makes a good gift, but there’s a difference between fancy olive oil and good fancy olive oil. The house oil from Frankies 457 Sputino in Brooklyn is delicious (i.e. great on fresh bread and in dishes), is DOC cerified, and comes in a nice tin that prevents the light from spoiling the product.

Metal Pizza Peel for Retrieving Pizzas

Wooden pizza peels are too thick to easily slide under a pie once it’s hit the oven; for that, you’ll want a thin-bladed metal peel. A thin-gauge aluminum peel is just fine for the occasional baker, but it’ll bend and warp eventually. If you’re going to be making pizza multiple times a year for many years to come, you might want to spring for something heavy-duty. I use the KettlePizza Pro Peel, which has a thick-gauge aluminum body that extends fully past the solid teakwood handle.

Whiskey Set

For the last few years, I’ve taken to buying my dad a nice bottle of whiskey for most special occassions. This year, I’ll be staying on theme, but changing things up by giving him something a bit longer lasting. This whiskey set from Snowe is durable and elegant, and I know it’ll get serious use in the years to come.

Cuisinart Blender

The Cuisinart is an easy-to-use, powerful blender that aced many of our tests. This model’s dashboard is intuitive, and it features a built-in timer that counts down for you or can be programmed to stop after a certain number of seconds.

Diaspora Co. Turmeric

This turmeric is as bright as a bar of gold, with a lovely, sleek label to match. Apart from the high-quality turmeric and nice packaging, the spice comes with a feel-good story: Diaspora Co. is run by queer women of color, and each jar purchased puts a much-higher-than-average amount of money back into the turmeric farmer’s hands.

Food Dehydrator

Elazar’s dad has always been into gardening, but recently he found a way to actually use all of the produce he grows. Since he got an Excalibur dehydrator a few years ago, he’s put more or less everything he grows through it. That means Elazar gets sent bags of dehydrated tomatoes, apple and pear slices, and more. This is a great gift for any dads who love to garden—or make jerky! Plus, if you’re lucky, you’ll start getting gift baskets from them.

Wine Fridge

Take it from us: Living in hot urban apartments makes storing age-worthy wines nearly impossible, unless you don’t mind risking the life of a pricey Burgundy by putting it through years of extreme temperature swings. Anyone with an interest in building even a modest collection of special-occasion bottles should get a wine fridge. It’s a small investment that protects your real investment.

Le Creuset Wooden Scraping Spoon

I have a problem with wooden spoons. I collect them like nobody’s business. But there are a few I always turn back to, and this one, from Le Creuset, is one of them. It’s gorgeous to look at; it has a flat front, which makes it great for scraping up fond or stirring vegetables; and it’s got a smooth, ergonomic grip that makes using it a joy.

Roccbox Outdoor Pizza Oven

The Roccbox is an incredible little oven with simple, reliable operation, whether you’re using gas, wood, or charcoal to fire it. It consistently hits wood-fired-oven temperatures and maintains them for as long as you are cooking, with no fussing or babysitting, which means Dad can spend more time enjoying pizza with his friends and family and less time coddling a temperamental flame.

Island Creek Oysters by Mail

Few things get me as excited as a good raw bar, but most of the time, I eat far fewer than I want because, after the first couple dozen oysters or so, it just gets to be too expensive. That’s even truer when the oysters are top-notch, like the briny little suckers from Island Creek up in Massachusetts. But here’s the good news: You can order Island Creek’s oysters online by the 50- or 100-count for much less than they cost at most restaurants and have them in your hands the next day for an at-home shucking extravaganza. (Obviously, it helps to learn to shuck first.)

High-Output Torch

Forget those puny kitchen torches designed to make crème brûlée for ants. If you want some serious torching power in the kitchen, for putting the final touch on fancy desserts or for finishing off a sous vide steak, you want a high-output torch like this one. You’ll get a deeper char than you’ll ever be able to get from using a skillet alone.

Fixed-Cup Spice Grinder

The sleek and minimalist design of the Krups means it’s easy to hold, handle, and store—perfect for anyone tight on space. Even without a removable bowl, cleanup is a cinch because spices never get trapped beneath the blade, and there are no unnecessary ridges or notches to clog with spices. The one-touch operation makes it easy to use, and it quickly yields a fine and consistent grind in both large, tough spices and smaller seeds.

Belgian Waffle Maker

Waffles are a pretty big deal in my family, and my dad knows full well that when I gift him kitchen equipment, I plan to use it whenever I come to visit (whether that’s buttermilk waffles on a whim, or a well-timed batch of yeast raised waffles on Christmas morning). Plus, my dad’s no stranger to the kitchen, so that iron will see plenty of use through the years.

Breville Smoking Gun

At home, my mom usually does all the cooking, so when my dad takes a crack at dinner it’s really an event. Without the burden of having cook every night, he’s like a kid at an amusment park, gleefully breaking out the pressure cooker and dusting off the blow torch. The smoking gun will make the perfect addition to his rowdy dive into the culinary world. It allows you to easily smoke anything indoors with just the flip of a switch. Equipped with an assorment of wood chips, the smoking gun offers instant dad-fun right out of the box. I can see it now—there’s probably going to be smoked dal along with smoked chana masala and smoked raitha at the next “dad” dinner.

Pizza Wheel

When it comes to portioning pizza, a knife simply won’t cut it. At least, not if you don’t want to drag cheese and toppings all over the place. For my money, nothing beats a traditional pizza wheel.

Tacos: Recipes and Provocations

My good friend Jordana Rothman cowrote this thoughtful ode to tacos with chef Alex Stupak, and it’s a must-have for anyone ready to take a deep dive into corn, masa, tortillas, and everything—modern and traditional—you can stuff into them.

Meathead: The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling

In this book, Meathead Goldwyn, the founder of AmazingRibs.com, distills decades of research on the art and science of barbecue and grilling into a single volume that shows not just the best ways to take food to live fire, but why the techniques work. Far more than a recipe book alone (though there are tons of bulletproof recipes), this text will teach Dad the hard-tested fundamentals of outdoor cooking, giving him the confidence to cook anything, even without a recipe. The myth-busting and equipment tips alone were enough to get me hooked.

R. Murphy Duxbury Oyster Knife

I’ve used many, many oyster knives in my life, and the R. Murphy Duxbury knife is my hands-down favorite. It has a fat, grippy handle that’s easy to wield, and a short blade that tapers to a point and always manages to find the sweet spot on an oyster’s hinge. Pop! The slightly sharpened blade edges make slicing through the muscle and removing the top shell as smooth as butter.

The Chili Cookbook

This isn’t just a chili cookbook. Robb Walsh digs deep into the beloved dish’s ancestry, tracing threads through Mexico City, San Antonio, and Santa Fe—as you might expect—but also Hungary, Greece, and the Canary Islands (off the coast of North Africa). Walsh is one of food writing’s best storytellers, so the book is satisfying even if you never whip out your Dutch oven and get cooking. You should, though: The fascinating tale is best enjoyed with a big bowl of chili con carne. (Walsh’s recipe from El Real in Houston is killer.)

Snow Leopard Vodka

Snow Leopard stands out among vodkas for its texture—distilled from spelt, it’s fuller-bodied and richer-tasting than most vodkas. It makes for a pleasantly weighty martini.

Marble and Acacia Wood Cake Stand

Like a pretty Bundt pan, a beautiful cake stand has an aesthetic value of its own, even without a cake—but present it with your giftee’s favorite cake on top, and it will also be a nice reminder of the day.

Misono UX10 Chef’s Knife

A deft and nimble blade, Misono’s UX10 is one of the lightest-weight knives we tested. It’s razor-sharp right out of the box and handled every task we threw at it with ease, dicing an onion as if it were as soft as a blob of Jell-O and making paper-thin slices of smoked salmon as if the knife were a true slicer.

Fancy Glass Pitcher

I actually received this classic Waterford pitcher as a wedding gift, and it’s become a workhorse in my home. When I’m not using it to decant wine, it’s hard at work serving cocktails, ice water, and juices. And in between any special occasion, you can drop in some fresh flowers and use it as a vase.

Beyond Curry Indian Cookbook: A Culinary Journey Through India

Indian food has a reputation for being difficult and time-consuming, with hard-to-find ingredients and new techniques. I get it. It’s intimidating. But in this book, Serious Eater Denise D’silva Sankhé breaks Indian cooking down into simple techniques that any home cook can master to produce amazingly flavorful dishes with minimal effort. Over the course of more than 100 recipes, Denise introduces us to simple cooking from every region of India, focusing on home-style dishes that move well beyond the world of curries. I’m also super stoked that she includes notes with every recipe on whether it’s vegan, vegetarian, and/or allergy-friendly.

Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking

I’ve never been to Zahav, the Philadelphia restaurant where Michael Solomonov serves his Israeli cuisine, but its namesake book has nevertheless changed the way I cook. If Dad still cooks the occasional meal for you, you might point him toward the hummus tahini recipe, which includes a novel technique for incorporating garlic and lemon that alone is worth the price of admission. I’ve loved the Yemenite beef soup (and the accompanying hot sauce), his wide focus on vegetarian-friendly dishes, and a host of homemade condiments that will elevate almost any meal, even if you don’t follow the full recipes from the book.

Pralus

I don’t mind baking with supermarket chocolate bars, but when it comes to snacking I’d rather spring for the good stuff—especially when it comes to my dad. He’s decidedly a “bite of dark chocolate after dinner” kinda guy, which means every bite needs to count, and that’s where this stack of single origin chocolates comes in. It’s a fun way to explore the world of chocolate, and learn how different beans and countries of origin can impact its taste. Plus, I can steal some when he’s not looking.

Green Mountain Grills Davy Crockett Pellet Grill (Wifi Enabled)

Surprisingly, many of the portable pellet smokers out there still have an antiquated LMH controller, while Davy Crockett employs Green Mountain’s advanced digital touch-pad controller, with an integrated meat thermometer that lets you check internal meat temp with the flick of a switch.

Breville Crispy Pizza Oven

If our rice cooker got it on with a Roomba, we imagine their offspring might look a bit like the new Breville Crispy Crust countertop pizza oven. It’s a new plug-and-go appliance that promises “professional brick-oven results right in your own kitchen,” for about $150.

Glass Tumblers

My dad lives in Florida and never drinks enough water. These little tumblers seem like the perfect compromise to get him to drink just enough to not get totally dehydrated every day. And if he refuses to fill them with water, at least he can use them for alcoholic beverages. The final plus: They stack, so they won’t take up too much space in his cabinets.

Gin Mare

Friends have toted bottles of this fantastic gin back from Barcelona, but now you can buy it in the US. Macerated with Arbequina olives, thyme, rosemary, and basil, along with cardamom and coriander, it’s remarkably creamy, savory, and spicy. It makes for a wonderfully aromatic Martini and a super-complex, earthy G&T.

GelPro Floor Mat

If you love to cook and host parties, you’ll know that a lot of prep time is spent on your feet. Why not make at least the cooking part a bit more comfortable with one of these gel mats? It’ll provide some nice cushion under your feet, so when it’s time to put on your party shoes, you’ll be ready.

The Glenrothes Triple Pack Gift Set

Why give your dad one Scotch when you can give him three? This gift set includes three 100-milliliter bottles. A combination of 10 vintages from 1989 through 2007, the Vintage Reserve is mellow and fruity, the range of young and older whiskies contributing both bright, fresh citrus on the one hand and rich, oaky elements on the other. Sherry Cask (aged, as the name might suggest, in used sherry butts) leans toward dried fruit, and the Bourbon Cask (aged in bourbon barrels) toward creamy vanilla.

The Cocktail Chronicles

Having The Cocktail Chronicles at your side is like having a friend who always knows a good drink recipe for whatever you’ve got on hand. It doesn’t talk your ear off or suggest something with a dozen ingredients. Instead, it shares classics, recent spins on classics, and drinks you’ve never heard of but can easily mix up and enjoy, and the introductions are never preachy or boring. This book will appeal to full-on cocktail fanatics and newbies alike; there’s something delicious on every page.

Portable Kitchen Timer

I can’t tell you how many times I burn bread crumbs or forget about the nuts I’m toasting in the oven. At least, I used to. That was all before I got myself a couple of these easy-to-use, loud kitchen timers that I can hang around my neck, so I never forget about something in the kitchen, even if I leave the room.

Cooking Coat

Aprons get all the attention, but they don’t protect your clothes nearly well enough, leaving large swaths of sleeves and shoulders exposed to spatters and stains. You could always put on a shirt you don’t care too much about before donning an apron, but a protective work coat like this keeps your clothes safe without requiring a complete costume change.

Cuisinart ICE-21 Ice Cream Machine

The value-to-cost ratio on this lightweight model can’t be beat. It uses a pre-frozen, coolant-lined canister to chill down the ice cream base, eliminating the need for salt and ice or an expensive compressor. When properly frozen, the canister churns up in less time than any other model we tested, for creamy and smooth ice creams and other frozen desserts. This undemanding model has one button, a lid that easily snaps into place, and a small footprint for tight spaces.

Carbon Steel Omelette Pan

A good carbon steel has many of the qualities that make cast iron great—it’s durable, it forms a completely nonstick surface if cared for properly, and it’s inexpensive—but it’s lighter and easier to maneuver than cast iron, making it great for sautéing and searing everyday foods.

Espro Press P5

Thanks to a few simple innovations in the filter and beaker design, this French press fixes a few of the brewing device’s biggest drawbacks. The result is a cleaner batch of coffee that won’t accidentally over-steep.

Good Kitchen Shears

A good pair of kitchen shears is one of those things that are hard to appreciate until you have them. Sure, there are all the obvious uses, like opening food packages with a snip and cutting up poultry, but that’s just the start. Take another look at those things. Yes, that’s right, they’re also a nutcracker. Aha, yup, and a bottle opener. Did you see the flathead screwdriver built into them? Handy, right? Oh, they can also be used to unscrew stubborn jar tops. They’re way more than just a pair of scissors. Plus, the two blades come fully apart, so you can wash them really well—no icky chicken juice hiding in the recesses. Isn’t avoiding salmonella poisoning a gift worth giving?

6-Quart Instant Pot

The Instant Pot Duo60 is a fantastic value and performed almost as well as the top pick among countertop pressure cookers we tested. It’s easy to use, the company has a reputation for great customer service, and there’s an avid and helpful community of users online to boot.

Unicorn Magnum Pepper Mill

I’ll admit it: I’m a pepper mill snob. I need my mill to produce a shower of evenly crushed peppercorns. I want to be able to control the size of those grains, from a rough crush to a fine powder. Not only that, I want my pepper mill to last. With a solid metal burr and a unique, easy-to-load design, this is my favorite pepper mill of all time.

Cast Iron Combo Cooker

A combo cooker is the key to getting a gorgeous, shattering crust on homemade bread. It acts as its own little steam chamber, like what you’d find in a professional bread oven, and it costs way less than a kitchen renovation.

OXO Good Grips Two-Piece Grilling Set

A quality spatula and tongs are essential for good grilling. Seek out ones with long handles, such as OXO’s two-piece grilling set, to keep your fingers as far from the heat as possible. The nearly flat, scalloped edge on the OXO tongs is especially appealing—it’s extra easy to slide the tongs under meat, vegetables, and other ingredients on the grill.

Redbreast 15 Year Irish Whiskey

If Dad finds Scotch too smoky, bourbon too sweet, and rye too spicy, Irish whiskey is the ideal gift. Redbreast emerges from the barrels complex and substantial; some of the whiskey is aged in sherry casks, lending it a weight and dark hue, while some is aged in bourbon casks, imparting characteristic vanilla flavors. There’s a hint of fruit up front and spice on the finish.

Countertop Seltzer Maker

Make your own seltzer water at home with this easy-to-use unit. It comes equipped with LED indicators displaying three levels of carbonation and a BPA-free bottle that locks into the unit with no twisting, and it requires no batteries or electricity to operate. This model fits 14.5-ounce and three-ounce CO2 cylinders, which can be traded in for just the cost of the gas at your local hardware or home-goods store.

All-Clad Two-Quart Saucepan

This small 2-quart saucepan is perfect for making and warming sauces, cooking small portions of grain, and heating liquids.

Japanese Nakiri Vegetable Knife

A good gift for dads who are knife-curious, a nakiri is a double-beveled knife typically used just for slicing vegetables. This one is all carbon steel, so it’s easy to sharpen on a whetstone and holds its edge well. On the other hand, it’s susceptible to rust, so it needs to be dried after each use and periodically wiped down with mineral oil. Given its price point, this nakiri is perfect for a cook who wants to experiment with specialty Japanese knives or with caring for a non–stainless steel blade.

Precision Coffee Maker

While you can get it brewing with just the push of a button, the Breville offers layer upon layer of fine-tuned control for the coffee geek who wants to tweak brew variables. Finishing near the top of our taste tests, this spendy machine allows you to control brew-water temperature and time and the blooming phase. It can also make cold brew, and it’s compatible with popular pourover devices like the Hario V60 and Kalita Wave.

Terra Cotta Cazuela

Daniel’s owned these terra cotta dishes in several sizes for many years now. They’re attractive enough to go straight from the oven to the table, and versatile enough to be used as baking dishes for cooked foods or as serving dishes for snacks when you’re hosting guests.

Smuggler’s Cove

This remarkable book, from Martin and Rebecca Cate of San Francisco’s Smuggler’s Cove, traces the birth and evolution of exotic drinks and tiki bars—bars that embodied an American escapist fantasy. A lively exploration of our country’s drinking history (and the current tiki scene), it’s essential reading for rum lovers, offering the best categorization of the headspinning-ly diverse spirit that I’ve encountered. The Mai Tai recipe is great, too.

Liquid Intelligence

Dave Arnold (you might know of his bar, Booker and Dax in NYC) won’t just accept the common assumptions about cocktail technique—his mission in this excellent book is to dig into the science of how the very best drinks are made. If your dad is the inquisitive type, and likes to host cocktail hour at home, this is a must-read for him.

Chimney Starter

Lighter fluid is fun to play with, but it can impart an off flavor to your food. A chimney starter is faster, cleaner, more efficient, and better for the environment. It’s a tall metal cylinder with holes punched in it and a grate at the bottom for holding the charcoal. It works with the power of convection: When a lit newspaper is placed at the bottom, igniting the lowest coals, the hot air rises up, pulling fresh oxygen in through the vent holes and through the bottom. This constant supply of fresh oxygen, coupled with the fact that the metal efficiently reflects heat back toward the coals, means you require nothing more than a single piece of newspaper and a match to turn a full six quarts of coals into a roaring inferno within 20 minutes.

ThermoWorks ThermoPop

In the inexpensive-thermometer department, the ThermoPop is the new kid on the block, but he comes in an impressive package. An easy-to-read display rotates at the touch of a button, so you don’t have to twist your head to read it. It takes a few seconds longer to read temperatures than its big brother, the Thermapen, but it’s every bit as accurate.

Char-Griller Kamado Smoker

The Akorn is a double-walled, insulated steel egg that is much lighter and in some ways more durable than the popular Big Green Egg. It performs fairly close to traditional kamados at a fraction of the cost, so you can spend your saved bucks on getting some great meat.

Hands-Free Soap Dispenser

Messy cooks—or germaphobes—will love this easy-to-use soap dispenser. Unlike some other models that have finicky settings, this Simple Human dispenser changes how much soap you get based on where your hands are: Keep them up high for just the right amount to wash your hands, or move them lower for enough to clean a few dinner plates.

High West Barreled Manhattan

A premixed 2:1 rye-vermouth Manhattan with a few dashes of bitters, this stuff spends three months aging in used rye barrels, which integrates the flavors and adds a touch of woody character to the drink. Give it a quick stir over ice for chill and dilution, spray an orange twist on top, and you’ve got a drink worthy of any cocktail bar—no barrel required.

Joule Sous Vide Circulator

The ChefSteps Joule is the smallest circulator on the market. It’s sleek, compact design fits in a drawer and it heats quickly and accurately. It has the advantage of the ChefSteps community and legacy content built into its app, though its one downside is that it requires a smartphone or tablet along with a registered account to operate.

Ceramic Sangria Pitcher

This pitcher arrives sangria-ready. The pinched spout is a genius detail that keeps all the fruit and ice from splashing into your glass, and when it’s not filled with sangria, it can be used as a vase. We love a two-fer!

Magimix 14-Cup Food Processor

The Magimix impressed us with each slicing, chopping, grating, and puréeing test we tossed at it, especially with pizza dough, which it combined so well that no additional kneading was required.

Blackstone Pizza Oven

The Blackstone is the oven of choice for high-output, rapid cooking, as it takes very little time to preheat and recover, pumping out pie after pie at a nonstop clip. Users who are comfortable making frequent mechanical repairs and adjustments, and who care more about speed than about versatility and aesthetics, will be happy with this one.

MAC Professional Santoku Knife

This santoku from MAC’s professional line is an absolute pleasure to use, no matter the task. It’s lightweight, well balanced, sharp as can be, and comfortable to hold. It made perfect carrot cuts, broke down a chicken with ease, and filleted a whole fish as if it were a fish-shaped block of butter.

Granite Mortar and Pestle

With both parts made of rock-solid granite, the Thai mortar and pestle is (literally) a heavy hitter, and arguably the most versatile type of large mortar and pestle you can own. Its heft and weight, especially when combined with the stone-on-stone action that the all-granite build provides, make it ideal for one of its intended uses: making a Thai curry paste.

Iittala Essence Glasses

No matter what your father likes to drink, it’ll look good in these universal glasses from Iittala. They’re big enough to accommodate a 12-ounce beer, his favorite cocktail, or a monster pour of wine…because it’s Father’s Day, and he deserves it.

Pourover Coffee Brewer

There are enough coffee-brewing devices on the market to drive a person crazy, but it’s hard to beat a quality pourover brewer like this Japanese one. It’s compact and solid, making it ideal for home or the office, and it brews a mean cup of coffee. It claims to make two to four servings, but we find it’s perfect for a full 12-ounce single cup, too (note that you need these filters for it).

Digital Electric Gooseneck Kettle

This is the electric kettle of my coffee-delayed dreams. It has an elegant gooseneck spout that makes pouring a thin, controlled stream easy (very helpful for Chemex and other pourover coffee methods) and a base with controls that allow you to set a specific temperature and hold it there.

Recipe Journal

Trying to get your dad to finally write down all those family recipes? This sleek Moleskin journal will get him organized and become a precious family heirloom in the process.

Rancho Gordo Beans

A bean is a bean is a bean. Or is it? Once you go down the rabbit hole of eating quality dried beans (after they’re cooked, of course—raw dried beans aren’t so great), you’ll fall in love with their variety of flavors, textures, and colors. Some are starchy, some are nutty, some are earthy, and some are slightly sweet. Rancho Gordo is one company that sells some really cool ones to try. You won’t look at dried beans the same way again.

American Waffle Maker

The Breville produces crispy brown waffles the fastest and with the most consistent color of all the batches we tested, making it the best option if you prefer thinner waffles. Although it only makes one waffle at a time, it reheats and cooks rapidly, so you can crank out waffle after waffle with ease. The built in drip tray, non stick surface, and minimal design keeps clean up effortless.

Bamboo Steamer

Since I am now the best dad in the world, according to the bib I definitely did not buy my daughter, I get to pick something that I want for our Father’s Day gift guide, and I want several bamboo steamers for my wok. They are useful for steaming, particularly large-ish things, like a whole (if small) fish, like a porgy or a diminutive sea bass. They are super useful! Easy to clean! I want it! Buy me it!

Half Moon Orchard Gin

The New York–made gin is distilled from wheat and apples, resulting in a faint but perceptible dried-apple character alongside prominent juniper and cardamom—an exciting dimension that works especially well in cocktails.

Spaghetti con la Colatura Gift Box

One of our favorite recipes from the year thus far is Sasha’s spaghetti con la colatura di alici. Conveniently, Gustiamo is selling a gift box based on the building blocks of the dish: a bottle of colatura, a bottle of high-quality extra-virgin olive oil, and a box of pasta, for a tasty gift indeed.

All-Clad Immersion Blender

A high-speed hand blender is great for whipping up silky soups and purées, making emulsions like mayonnaise and Hollandaise, or smoothing out sauces, all right in the pot. No need to dirty up an extra blender jar!

Rice, Noodle, Fish

Warning: Reading this book might lead to the purchase of some very expensive plane tickets. The Roads & Kingdoms crew will get you hungry for a journey to Japan, for onigiri basted with chicken fat, juicy one-bite gyoza, milky-white tonkotsu ramen broth, and briny sea urchin. Is Japan the best place on earth to eat? This book will convince you that it is.

Louie Mueller’s Brisket

Brisket is Texas’s best-known contribution to barbecue culture, and though you can now get slow-smoked brisket in just about every major American city, you still need to go to the source to get brisket so good it will make you cry. But if you can’t make it to Texas, ordering Louie Mueller’s is the next best thing. The Muellers have been smoking the stuff since 1949. The key here? They ship the whole brisket, which means you get plenty of the critically important fatty half. Why is it critically important? Because we all know that fat IS flavor. Phone orders only: [phone].

Pasta by Hand: A Collection of Italy’s Regional Hand-Shaped Pasta

No pasta machine? No problem. This book is devoted to the art of handcrafted Italian dumplings, from yeasty, spindle-shaped cecamariti to classic gnocchi to golden-brown parallelograms of deep-fried crescentine. If the adage “practice makes perfect” fills you with excitement rather than dread, this is the kind of book that will make you utterly determined to prevail.

Staub Heritage Baking Dish

It can be easy to brush off appearances as unimportant, but tableside presentation is a big part of a baking dish’s appeal. If you want excellent performance combined with a handsome and classic design that will look great on your holiday table (or on your Instagram account), Staub is your best bet. This heavyweight dish heats evenly in the oven at temperatures up to 575°F (300°C) and has great heat retention, keeping food hotter longer when you’re serving. The generous four-quart capacity is ideal for large roasts and extra-deep casseroles.

The Original Bear Paws Shredder Claws

In addition to making you look like Wolverine, shredder claws make quick work of pork butts (hello, pulled pork!), smoked chicken, smoked chuck roasts, and other meats, allowing you to tear the meat into shreds in no time. Sure, you could try doing it with forks, but you’d better have a lot of time on your hands.

Inexpensive Wire Grill Brush

Grill brushes come in all shapes, sizes, and styles, but for a tool that sees so much use, I find it hard to justify spending a huge amount of money. This simple, heavy-duty wire-style grill brush has served me well for years, and if it ever wears out, well, it’s cheap enough to replace.

George Dickel Barrel Select Tennessee Whiskey

Made from whiskeys averaging 10 to 12 years in age, this bottling is all vanilla and toffee in the aroma but spice and char on the finish. It’s sophisticated and eminently drinkable.

[Header photograph: Shutterstock]

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