Gearing Up

Everyone loves a good gear up scene, so I thought I'd talk a bit about some gear I've been acquired over the last few months which, frankly deserves a bit of raving about. There are more pictures of all of these things at the bottom of the post, but the images, er, could be better.

First, the new bag. A couple of weeks ago, I got my Bag of Holding - something made by the excellent US company ThinkGeek, which I've been ogling online for a number of years. It's both a bag that's suitably capacious to hold the vast array of junk I tent to cart around with me from place to place and its own geek fashion statement.

There are a variety of video reviews online where you can get a good look at the bag, but it can fit A LOT of stuff in. I tend to carry around with me an iPad (dedicated tablet pocket FTW!), my work phone, my Kindle, and often a laptop as standard, not to mention various other smaller items (see below). The BoH comfortably holds all these, with plenty of room spare for whatever else I need to bring, though that does rack up the weight pretty quickly.

Speaking of all those small objects, here's a sample of what I aim to have with me on an everyday basis:

- torch

- 1-2 notebooks

- pens

- pencil

- portable battery (for phone/tablet charging)

- cables for kindle/Apple tech

- work ID & passes

- mouse

- headphones

Now, that's not actually that much stuff. It's just lots of small, fiddly things. The BoH can easily accommodate all of this, but you run into trouble trying to find any of it. Enter: the Grid-It!

This isn't actually full... I was using a few things at the time I took the picture.

I came across these some time last year, and recently got around do to buying a couple. It's a cross/cross of rugged, variously-sized elastic straps which an comfortable hold any small item in an organised fashion, meaning that they don't disappear into the depths of your bags, or smash into each over if they're breakable. 

A corollary benefit of this is that I tend to switch bags quite a lot. Previously, I'd often forget something in another bag, or spend a lot of time repacking them. Grid-It means I can swap it all out at once. I really can't recommend them enough for general utility, and they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes (or as part of a bigger gadget case).

The tin in the picture above actually contains a whole bunch more stuff - a variant of the urban altoids survival tin.

From this post so far, you've probably got the impression that I'm a bit of an over-prepared gadget nut. And that's a fair reaction, and something that leads me onto my last two things. 

A small but surprisingly handy one - it's always good to have a pen on you, but they're so easy to lose, and often just a bit too much of a pain to have in your pocket. True Utility's Telepen is the perfect answer to this. Clipping onto your keys, this tiny capsule extends into a small but functional and easy-to-grip pen, giving you something both forgettably portable and functional, since it's still easy to use despite its small size.

Lastly, my hoody. Another thing I've ogled on ThinkGeek for years, but made by a different company - Scottevest. The microfleece hoody is comfortable and very warm (meaning it's been a bit out of season recently, but still). Scottevest garment are extremely practical and functional. This hoody has about ten pocket or other functional compartments. Handwarmer pockets with magnetic closers, including a water bottle strap, velcro coin pouch and slipcase section. A double-ended zipping pocket on the side. A sleeve pouch. A sunglasses segment, connected to a transparent, touch-friendly phone pocket on the inside. There's even an extendible key-holder in one of the handwarmer pockets.

I'm aware that this picture does not do it justice.

All of these pockets have small slits to feed your headphone cables through, which you can then wire up into the cable management system in the neck of the hoody. Since I usually only have one pair of functioning headphones, I haven't wired them up too much (too warm at the moment for them to stay in there for long!), but the system works very well.

The whole hoody is great, and helps enable me in carrying round useful things on an everyday basis - notebook, pens, coins, glasses, etc. all fit snugly without overly distorting the lining, or being too heavy.

Right, I'll stop raving now, but all this stuff has proved really nifty and practical so far.