Julie’s gadget diary – January 2015 EDC update

I can’t believe that it’s been almost 2 years since I posted my EDC setup. Time sure flies when you’re having fun reviewing gadgets! I recently decided that it’s time to downsize the gear that I carry with me everyday because my bag has been gaining weight for awhile now and I’m starting to really notice when I sling it over my shoulder in the mornings. There are a lot of items that I rarely if ever use that are just weighing me down. This is going to be a 2 part article. This first part shows the state of my EDC as it currently stands and in the next week or so I will post another article with my updates.

Since my EDC post back in the Spring of 2013, I’ve dropped a few things and added a few things. Here is my current collection of stuff.

Details in images above top to bottom, left to right.

Gear bag

• Timbuk2 Custom Laptop Messenger Bag – I’m still carrying this bag and have no real desire to switch to something else. I sometimes think that it would be fun to order a new one with new colors though.
• A few papers clipped together with a small binder clip
• Ziploc baggie with some Stevita Surpreme stevia sweetener packets
• Mini Totes umbrella
• Dragonthorn Leatherworks Pocket Carry System – Holds an Altoid Smalls tin of Ibuprofen, Carmex lip balm and fingernail clippers
• Huntlight LED flash light
• Spyderco Ladybug pocket knife
• 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
• Stock Apple earbuds
• Bose MIE2i Mobile Headset – I’m going to be switching to a new pair of earphones that you’ll see in part 2 of this article
• Leather Field Notes / Moleskine Cahier cover that I made myself and holds 2 Field Notes notebooks
• 2 extra Field Notes notebooks
• Checkbook and a stack of colored index cards clipped with a binder clip
• Wintogreen Livesavers
• Forever stamp
• Dental floss
• 2 tubes of eye drops
• Cummins ID badge
• Waterfield Finn wallet – I love zippered wallets and Waterfield is my favorite
• Polishing cloth
• 3feet Universal phone/tablet stand
• HAND Stylus, another stylus (can’t remember the brand), Uniball Jetstream, generic Bic pen, cheap Papermate clicky mechanical pencil, Fischer Space Pen, Targus stylus, Kum PenCut scissors and EiMIM Pen – My current favorite pen is still the very affordable Uniball
• Comb
• Muku Labs Muku Shuttr remote shutter button for iOS and Android
• OTG 3 port hub – This is handy when I need to turn my Android phone into a pseudo computer.
• Kingston DataTraveler 32gb USB flash drive, Lexar 8GB flash drive, Leef Bridge USB Drive, Sandisk 8GB USB Cruzer flash drive, Keyshair adapter
• ATP Pro Max card reader – can’t remember the last time I needed to use this
• 12V USB car adapter
• Altoids tin that holds:
  • 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.
  • SDcardholder –  Holds a regular SD card and several microSD cards
  • 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
  • Collection of SIM card adapters
  • Leef Access microSD card reader for Android
  • PQI 2 in 1 32GB USB flash drive
  • Sandisk microSD card reader
• 3 micro USB cables and a short USB cable that has both mini and micro connectors on one end
• Waterfield Designs iPod Gear Pouch – Holds a lot of the small items shown here
• Not pictured – Kleenexes and an empty Walmart style plastic shopping bag just because..
• Not pictured – Fork (or a spoon depending on what I brought with me to eat that day)
• 2013 Nexus 7 LTE Android tablet in a case I bought from Etsy.

Total weight of everything including the bag is 7 lb 6.6 oz. As Larry G told me, it’s like I’m carrying around a newborn! He’s right! 😉

Keychain

• Keyport Slide 2.0 – Love this and can’t imagine going back to a traditional keychain. The Keyport has 2 house keys, a USB flash drive, pen, flashlight and a bottle opener.
• MINI Cooper car key fob attached to the Keyport so that I can easily hand over just the key fob to mechanics.

 Pocket gear

• Virgin Healthmiles pedometer – I carry it on my belt loop every day. At my day job (Cummins), we earn points for steps and can redeem them for cash at the end of the year
• LG G3 Android smartphone

EDC update plans

That’s the “before” picture and gear list. I’ll be posting the “after” article once I’m finished with my updates. My plan is to do an audit of everything I actually use and ditch the items I don’t use. I also want to replace items for gear that can serve a multipurpose. That will hopefully not only help make the collection smaller, but also not as heavy. Items I know I would like to replace:

Gerber multitool / Kum Pencut scissors – replace with one small multitool that includes pliers, scissors, flat and Philips screwdriver. If it includes an easy to access knife I would also drop the Spyderco Ladybug pocket knife.

Various pens, pencils and styluses – I know I’ll still keep the Uniball Jetstream pen. But I’d like to replace all the others with one multifunction pencil that also has a stylus.