My Christmas Gift Guide for Grown-Ups!

Last updated on April 20th, 2021 at 10:19 pm

Estimated reading time: 19 minutes

Grown-ups need love, too!

The Casey Palmer, Canadian Dad Christmas Gift Guide... for Grown-Ups!—Gift Basket

As we close in on Christmas, it becomes blindingly obvious there’re two classes of shoppers during the holiday season—the ones who know exactly what they’re getting for every person on their list… and the ones who keep it all ’til the last minute, ‘cuz they’ve no idea what they’re getting!

You might think it too late in the season to be looking at gift guides, but I know we’ve all been the victim of a poorly planned gift at least once. The kind of gift where it’s clear the giver didn’t really think about you—merely crossing another name off their list so they can pat themselves on the back.

But if you’re not putting any effort into it, why give a gift at all? Christmas isn’t about presents, right? It’s about family. Quality time. Going to church one of the few times many of y’all make it there. (I see you!)

I think you get the picture.

All that said, there’ll always be some grown-ups in your life to shower with gifts. Parents. Spouses. Maybe some teachers or a chiropractor. (They might be really good at what they do!) No matter who’s on your list, here are a few gifts I hand-picked for the occasion!

(And with it being so close to Christmas, here are the direct links so you can get what you need with the quickness!)

Google Home & Google Home Mini
The Google Pixel 2/Google Pixel 2 XL
Google Chromecast
The Brewscovery Box
Philips Sonicare 9300 DiamondClean Smart
Altec Lansing Mini H2O 3
Ultimate Ears Wonderboom
GoPro Hero 6
Küssi Stampede Classic 6-Piece Knife Set
Ice Evo Tweezers—Elegance
Ice Glass Foot File—Foot Care Pedicure — Lavender
Nespresso Vertuo Single-Serve Coffee Maker

Philips OneBlade Review

Last updated on November 11th, 2020 at 02:05 am

Last Updated: October 6, 2020.

“It’s not a product. It’s not a shaver. It’s a whole new category.

— The Philips OneBlade marketing material

The Philips OneBlade—A Better Shave Than You Ever Thought POSSIBLE.—Man Trimming

The Philips OneBlade vs. Black Skin—Is It the Best Electric Shaver for Black Men?

There’s a pretty universal truth when it comes to Black men and grooming—we can’t shave our faces with just anything.

I mean, I learned to shave like most dudes—my Dad got me disposable razors in my early preteen years, showing me how to carefully drag the blade across my skin, pulling taut now and then to make sure I got everything in even the trickiest of spots.

But you know what happens when you cut tight curls with a cheap razor and let it grow back?

Razor bumps.

The Philips OneBlade—Is It the Best Electric Shaver for Black Men?—Casey Palmer circa 2006 Razor Bumps and All

The Philips OneBlade vs. Razor Bumps—Just How Well Will it Fare?

The curse of Black men everywhere; it often feels like you can’t shave your face without avoiding razor bumps. I know gents who hit the barbershop weekly for a lineup and a shave, but not everyone has the luxury of time or the dollars to do that 52 times a year. In my case, I got a barber-grade Andis T-Outliner that’s been a dream to work with… but as a wired unit, what’re you supposed to do when an outlet isn’t handy?

If you ask Philips, they’ll give you an answer that just might be the cordless version of the best electric shaver for Black men—the Philips OneBlade!

The 2016 100

Last updated on April 5th, 2021 at 10:39 pm

I can’t even lie, guys—coming up with a list of 100 goals for the fourth year in a row was hardridiculously so. I’m a very different me than I was when The 2013 100 came out, back when free time was still an abundant commodity I didn’t even know I was taking for granted, trying to fill it with countless things that’d keep life interesting.

A problem I most definitely don’t have in 2016!

As I work at surviving the upcoming year—especially with our second child’s imminent arrival—I needed to make the list a lot more realistic; I’m all too skilled at chasing ambitions that exceed my lifestyle’s capacity, and I’ll need to keep wary of that in 2016 if I want to see myself make it out the other side!

So without further ado, The 2016 100. It took a couple of days to polish off after recovering from the gauntlet that was 2015, but I feel like it’s a list that will really make waves in this life o’ mine should I see it finished!

But hey—that’s what I say every year 😂

Thanks for reading!


1) Write an amazing series for Black History Month
2) Win a vacation for my dry cleaner
3) Watch Creed; Mad Max: Fury Road; The Martian; Ant-Man
4) Take Eric to a sporting event so he can stop complaining about getting left from sporting events
5) Phase my old 3.5″ hard drive out
6) Get rid of my old electronics
7) Stop biting my nails
8) Get rid of the wedding thank you cards I never sent
9) Clean out the basement crawl space
10) Build shelves into the crawl space
11) Give my FWD Powershot 2 to my old manager the hockey coach
12) Do the CN Tower Edgewalk
13) Sort out my old TD employee RSP
14) Consolidate everything down to a single notepad

Though a chiropractor I started seeing late into 2015 told me I’d developed some mild sciatica in my back, I didn’t need him to tell me I carry too much STUFF. In a digital age where we can pack mountains of information into a single device, there’s really NO NEED for me to carry all the draft posts and note that I do—save the fact that working from hard copy’s the way my brain’s WIRED.

In 2016, I need a little more focus to keep all my ideas stored in one place so I’m not constantly carrying EVERYTHING in my house made of paper, knowing that I probably scribbled SOMETHING on ALL of ’em.

15) Sort out the Internet situation at home so I can stop relying on tethering to LTE data
16) Learn enough Spanish to understand my sister-in-law’s Mexican wedding in May
17) Find time for date nights, which will involve finding someone who wants to babysit two kids… how about we just find more awesome things to do at home, just in case?
18) Try Uncle Tetsu’s cheesecake
19) Get to 0 drafts on CaseyPalmer.com by converting everything into live posts
20) Install the growth chart for my kids that we got at my office baby shower
21) Update all the old content on CaseyPalmer.com
22) Upgrade the site infrastructure to better support contest traffic
23) Redesign the heck out of the blog (Twenty Sixteen, what up)
24) Find the time to pack more lunches for work
25) Clean up and optimize my Pinterest account (I still have that copy of Pinterest Savvy lying around somewhere)
26) Shave more regularly
27) Hand out my remaining business “cep” cards so I can put in a new order (wait—do we still do business cards?)
28) Clear out the bookshelves to prepare for Baby #2
29) Replace the lost key to our 2011 Ford Edge
30) Figure out what I ACTUALLY need to run my site and invest in THAT.
31) Replace our bathroom sink
32) Meet with the people who I never seemed to schedule in through 2015 (Aaron, Emma, Ria, Adrienne, Dianna)
33) Get a Brookhaven Computer Cabinet

The 1% of the Casa de Palmer workspace I use to do all the things isn’t the best—in fact, it’s falling apart. As I get older and start formalizing my #BloggerLife, Sarah and I agree that my workspace should evolve to show that. It’ll take some saving to make it happen, but it’d be a nice addition to the home.

%d bloggers like this: