Jury Rig Engineer, Maker and OG Vlogger
October 26, 2020
I have had a long love affair with sunglasses. But they may be the worst things in the world.
The cheap ones are just that: Cheap. They fall apart quickly. I have literally had a pair of sunglasses simply disassemble to death in my hands and all I had done was pick them up.
Now, when I say “Cheap” - I don't mean “Affordable”. No, I mean bargain basement rejects. To me, $5 shades are over priced, so they had better last a couple of years at the very least. I had a pair of $3.50 shades last for over five years. I miss those things!
Dark Shades and Silly Face
$9 Bucks. Stylin'!
And, yes, as the song goes, my choice in eyewear is a pair “With the glass so dark they won't even know your name” - killer!!
Now, the problem with Expensive sunglasses is that, well, they're Cheap! They fall apart nearly as fast. I have had a pair of shades for which I paid $50, simply disintegrate into a handful of plastic shards. I hear some of you laughing, you don't think $50 is expensive for shades, do you? Two ounces of plastic and glass shouldn't cost more that $20 bucks, I don't care what name is on the stems!
My favorite pair of Expensive sunglasses I've had for about 20 years and they are prescription. I paid $400 for them AFTER insurance. I changed the lenses on them three times as my prescription changed. In all, I've invested hundreds of dollars in these shades. I'd probably still be wearing them if I hadn't had cataract surgery a few years back. For $10,000 dollars, out of pocket, after insurance, I received two benefits from that surgery; I am no longer going blind and I no longer wear glasses. I'm back to the $5 shades!
Before I invested in my Expensive prescription sunglasses, I went through a lot of Cheap shades. One day I opened my drawer at work to drop in yet another broken pair when I realized I had at least four deceased pairs already in the drawer. For the next 25 minutes, I and a tiny screwdriver went to work building a pair of shades out of the remains of several junk pairs. I felt like I was channeling my dead grandfather, the king of jury rigging. Not only could my grandfather repair a car or a lawn mower with a wire hanger and a piece of clothes line, I think he preferred it that way. When I was finished, I had a perfectly working pair of shades that ended up lasting me nearly a year. They were unique, no one had a pair like them, one might go so far as to call them custom. My grandfather might have been proud.
Casey Neistat
A couple of weeks ago I found the YouTube channel for Casey Neistat. I instantly felt a connection, a kinship with this man. First, he has a serious relationship with his sunglasses, insofar as he will go out of his way to nearly destroy a brand new pair of Expensive shades, just to make them his own. I get it. I understood.
I started looking around and Casey is a powerhouse. I didn't think I had heard of him before, but I had. Casey has become part of the cultural zeitgeist. Remember the video of the guy snowboarding in NYC? That's him. That was four years ago and that video has 21 MILLION views! On YouTube. That video was carried on the news all over the world and it's pirated all over the place. Casey made a Mercedes commercial, received an award from GQ, was in a movie with Jamie Fox - no, I'm not giving you all those links! You should go look at his channel!
Casey has been putting up videos and vlogs for over ten years. There's tech reviews and builds, jury rigs, hacks and vlogs about his life, his family, his career and his craft. If there isn't something on his channel that can inform or entertain you, I'm at a loss! I have learned a ton from Casey and been deeply inspired by him. I'm looking forward to his next ten years.