Two months have passed since my first article outlining all the gear I carry with me each day, so it’s time to see which items I’ve dropped and the new gear that I have added.
Note: Images can be clicked to view a larger size.
04/29/13 Gear Bag
Same as last time
- Timbuk2 Custom Laptop Messenger Bag – I’m still very happy with this messenger bag. It has room for all the stuff you see here and still has room to spare
- iPad mini in the Kensington cover that I reviewed a couple months ago
- Generic sunglasses clips stored in a clamshell case
- Cummins ID badge
- Waterfield Designs Zippered Wallet with
two good luck charms that areone good luck charm that is always zipped inside.One is a little metal peace sign charm that I found in the parking lot after my first chemo treatment in March 2011. It felt like the universe was telling me that “everything was going to be ok”.The other is a little plastic cross that was given to me during that same time frame. I’ve been carrying this same exact wallet since December of 2005. - Leather Field Notes / Moleskine Cahier cover that I made myself and holds 2 Field Notes notebooks
- Checkbook and a stack of colored index cards clipped with a binder clip
- Samsung Galaxy S3 (Verizon) with eGrips non-slip strips on the back
- iPod Classic 160GB – I rarely listen to this
- Bose MIE2i Mobile Headset – Comfy and sound great
- Gerber Crucial Pocket Tool Multi-Plier – I like this one because it’s small and doesn’t have a lot of tools that I will never use
- HAND Stylus, GoSmart Stylus, Uniball Jetstream, generic Bic pen, cheap Papermate clicky mechanical pencil, Fischer Space Pen and a handmade protective sleeve which Janet made – My current favorite pen is the Uniball. It writes great and I be won’t overly sad if I lose it, because it doesn’t cost much to replace
- 2 USB flash drives
- Little USB microSD card reader
- ATP Pro Max card reader – can’t remember the last time I needed to use this
- Waterfield Designs iPod Gear Pouch – Holds a lot of the small items shown here
- Dragonthorn Leatherworks Pocket Carry System – Holds an Altoid Smalls tin of Ibuprofen, Carmex lip balm and fingernail clippers
- Small bottle and 3 tubes of eye drops
- Stock Apple earbuds
2 short USB cables that have1 short USB cable that has both mini and micro connectors on one end.- Larger micro USB cable and a USB AC adapter
- Spyderco Ladybug pocket knife
- Huntlight LED flash light
- Not pictured – Kleenexes and an empty Walmart style plastic shopping bag just because…
Dropped
- Little metal peace sign charm – One day last week I realized it was no longer in my wallet… I’m still very upset about losing it 🙁
- Samsung Galaxy Note 2
- Small Waterfield CableGuy pouch – I wasn’t carrying much in it (eye drops and kleenexes), so I move those items to other pockets in the bag
- Camera charm that flashes and makes shutter sound when you press the shutter button – gift from one of my best friends
- Orange elago G5 Breathe case – Using eGrips strips now
- I gave away one of the dual USB mini/micro cables to a co-worker
- Cheapo Sony earbuds
- Vaja SD card wallet – found an alternative, see Altoids tin o’stuff below
- Ziploc baggie of Stevia packets – ran out, need to replenish
New additions
- Altoids tin o’stuff (see below)
- Pyrex glass food container – most days this either has pre-made steel cut oats for breakfast or something I froze the night before, for lunch. Either way, I don’t need to carry a lunch box
- 24 oz. Bubba Hero insulated bottle – after reviewing 2 of their other bottles, I ordered this one. It has helped me almost completely kick my lunchtime Diet Coke addiction. I fill it with 5 ice cubes from home and when I get to work, I fill it with cold water and 2 Twinings Cold Brew iced tea bags. By noon I have perfect ice cold iced tea.
- Fork (or a spoon depending on what I brought with me to eat that day)
- Altoids Smalls tin – empty, not sure how it got in my bag
- Mini container of dental floss
- Apple AC adapter & Lightning cable for iPad mini
- Micro OTG cable – I’m seeing if I can replace my iPod with this cable, a 32GB microSD card full of my tunes and my Samsung Galaxy S3
04/29/13 Keychain and Altoids tin o’stuff
Same as last time
- I am just using 2 generic split rings connected via a TEC Python clip
- Keys
- PNY USB flash drive which I plan to put to add emergency contact info
- Photon X-Light Micro – I love this little LED flashlight because it’s always exactly where I need it. It’s tiny and easy to use with one hand unlike likes that require you to twist the head. Click once to turn on and once to turn off. Even has some special modes like SOS
Dropped
- None
New additions
On keychain:
- Lambda Keylight – cool little locator light that glows 24/7 on a set of batteries for 1 year. It helps me locate my keys if they are at the bottom of my bag
- Virgin Healthmiles pedometer – not really new. I carry it on my belt loop every day. At my day job (Cummins), we get points for steps and can redeem them for cash at the end of the year
Altoids tin o’stuff:
- Tru-Nord compass – you never know when you might need to know which way is which. This is a cool little compass with a brass case
- PocketMonkey – this is a handy credit card sized multi-tool that is made of stainless steel, has 12 different functions and is TSA compliant.
- SDcardholders – I replaced the little Vaja SD card holder with several of these plastic holders. They make them for microSD cards, regular SD cards and even SIM cards. They also come in a variety of colors
- Little USB dongle jig – it’s supposed to save your bacon if you can’t boot your Android phone into recovery mode. Since I’ve been playing around with custom ROMs, I thought it might be good to have one
New things I’m looking for
- I’m trying to find a set of eating utensils and a small case for them. I usually just throw a fork or spoon from home into my bag and that’s not very sanitary
That’s it for this time…
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Julie,
Try the light my fire forks. It is a fork and spoon combo with a small serrated edge on one of the fork blads. I have been using them for a couple years now. They also have a case for them now.
http://www.lightmyfire.com/products/wild-kitchen-collection/spork/spork-original.aspx
@Jeremy I’ve thought about buying a spork, but never did mostly because they don’t look comfortable to use/hold.
@Janet Those look pretty good. I’ll have to do some more shopping. I do know that I want them to be stainless steel and not plastic. And I also prefer a rounded handle instead of flat handles with sharp edges.
Amazon has several travel utensils sets with cases, but some of them seem to be sized for children and some of them are plastic. They do have a stainless steel set with a plastic cover that snaps over the “business ends” of the utensils. It comes with a knife, fork, and spoon, and the handles of the fork and spoon side into the knife’s handle to make it very compact. This link is for a white cover, but they have other colors, too. http://www.amazon.com/Zelco-16502-Mangia-Tool-White/dp/B0006VHM3Q/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1367329044&sr=8-4&keywords=zelco+mangia
I second the Light My Fire spork. I have the titanium version at work, it works well and the serrations will cut through most anything without a problem. The kids at home like the smaller plastic ones too.
LOL. You live in Indiana. You don’t go anywhere, Julie. You sit at home and leech off companies to send you stuff, and you know it. No one consults you. You don’t do any business with anyone, ma’am. Not to be rude, but you probably have a part time job or none at all, and you spend the rest of your time acting busy.
@Rob Not sure why it’s LOL funny that I live in Indiana… I actually have a full time 40hr a week job for Cummins Inc. Been working there for going on 26yrs. I work there all day and then come home and work on The Gadgeteer? People don’t really “consult” with me, but I think most of you out there would agree that we have fun here at The Gadgeteer talking about our gadgets.
You sound like you need a hug or something… Try being more positive and see what happens. You might be surprised. 🙂
Yay a new EDC post…..did you give up on your Keyport desires?
@Joey no, I haven’t… just waiting for their new version to become available. Thanks for reminding me!
Why did you stop using the Note II, do you prefer the S3 over it or did the ipad mini replaced it? Are you going to upgrade to the S4?
@Dion I had been carrying the Note II because I was working on a review. I liked it a lot, but it was just too large to easily carry around with me, so I went back to my SGS3. I don’t think I’ll be upgrading to the S4, but since I haven’t had a chance to use one yet, I’m not 100% sure.
@Dmitriy thank you for the links. I really prefer stainless steel though.
i think the lightest EDC cutlery set is GSI Outdoors Stacking Cutlery Set
some photos and review (russian only, sorry):
http://www.paravin.ru/2012/05/07/gsi-stacking-cutlery-set-poxodnyj-obed-s-komfortom/
you can buy this here:
http://www.backcountry.com/gsi-outdoors-gourmet-stacking-cutlery-set?CMP_SKU=GSI0135&MER=0406&mr:trackingCode=4706BA16-8763-DF11-9DA0-002219319097&mr:referralID=NA&avad=397_c436df67
i have three sets for all family.
Thank you Julie for a great article! Regarding knife, fork and spoon, have you gone to Amazon and searched for this—Alite Designs Cloverware 2.0 nesting utensils? They are $7.19 and come in several colors and are dishwasher safe. 🙂
If Rob has really been coming to this site he should know, as I and others do, that you work at Cummins, a respected and well-known company. Describe him for what he is, an impudent ignorant jerk.
@Philippe I was trying to be nice 😉
On another note, I have a surprise…
I asked the rest of my rag tag team of gadget nuts here at The Gadgeteer to write up their own EDC posts. So hopefully we’ll be seeing more good stuff soon-ish.
If you’d like some light protection for the iPad mini that will fit the current case + protect the back, I’d be happy to send over an iPad Mini Suede Jacket for you. Let me know if you’d like one.
http://www.sfbags.com/products/ipad-cases/suedejacket-ipad.php
Yay more edc posts!!
Try not to feel too bad about losing your charm. Perhaps it came into your life when you needed it and now someone else needs it more. It got lost once to get to you. Now it’s just lost once more.
@Travis Thnaks! It’s funny you should say that because that’s exactly what Janet told me… hearing that actually made everything “better” and I wasn’t sad anymore. I can be a big sap when it comes to some things. 🙂
If you are still looking for a fork/spoon combo, try swinging by an army surplus store – I know back in my Boy Scout Days (for my sins) we pretty much all had a fork/spoon/knife kit that nested and were held together by a pair of small bolts on one utensil and some keyhole slots on the other two. Came with a plastic case, which while not hermetically sealed has got to be better than just tossing it into the bag.
You can get them online here (first place I found after a google search, you can likely do better, and I would really like to see you get one at a local business – if not army surplus, then I would think you could find them at any camping store, even that area at WalMart): http://www.gearmil.com/servlet/the-231/BOY-CHOW-EATING-FORK/Detail
@Scot thanks for the link. I’m still in the habit of throwing a spoon or fork from my regular “home” flatware into my Timbuk2 bag. The only prob is that the forks keep making holes in the laptop sleeve section.
The only downside to the kit is that it would not be TSA compliant, but it would certainly stop putting holes in things inside your bag.