Bag Fixations

What're YOU Carrying?

I am a total sucker for bag articles (also, buying bags). Part of this is easy to explain--I'm a bag geek, basically--but really, I have a fascination with the intimacy of our day to day objects, and what other people find to be of worth. Hence, my love for Rands in Repose's "Bag of Holding" article, as well as my ongoing obsession with The Setup. It's a bit of insight into what people whom I admire value. Also, I've found a lot of awesome stuff and software by reading all those blogs.

In the interest of, you know, finishing this post, I'm going to focus pretty much exclusively on my mobile setup. I have an idea for a "Cool Thing I'm Using Now" regular/intermittent feature, but not today.

So, What Do I Value?

I need my setup to do three things: be lightweight, be productive, and be stylish. I feel like most of these are self-explanatory: I don't like to feel like a pack mule, I do like to get things done in a hurry literally the instant it needs doing, and I'd rather not look like a complete dweeb while doing all of it. My gender complicates the issue a bit, mainly because while there are probably millions of gear bags which are appropriate for a man to wear, there are relatively few gear bags designed for women, and even fewer which appeal to my personal sense of style--guess what, I'm a grown woman! Pink canvas does not equal "for women" in my estimation.

To be fair, I have a couple very nice utility bags from Tom Bihn--the Swift and the Ristretto--which I absolutely adore, and I'd heartily recommend them to anyone who needs a basic bag. However, they fall short in the appearances department, and as a result I needed to switch bags recently.

What I'm Toting

I recently bought a Fossil Vintage Tote that more or less meets my needs for a Big Girl's Geek Bag--it's fashionable, but functional, and versatile enough to actually go everywhere. Inside, amidst my various "girl things" like knitting projects, 2+ meals, a small beauty kit I never use, a larger post-workout kit I always use, and the weird detritus that seems to collect in the bottom of every bag I've ever owned, no matter how small or large, I can discreetly pack in my hardware.

For the last...oh, twenty months or so, I've carried an iPad to the complete exclusion of my old Macbook Air (recently shipped to my mother as a gift). Why? iPad fans will totally understand me, but probably no one else--

Being totally free of the charger.

"Work anywhere" from a laptop is almost true, so long as you're close enough to a wall outlet to plug in after about three hours. Forget your charger? Well, then you can practice the shamanistic rituals of brightness control, application monitoring, and finally, working in life-support mode as you kill everything to just eke a few more minutes out to finish a paper (as you might guess, I used a laptop a lot in college). With my iPad, I can boldly sit in the middle of a convention hall, confident I'll be able to take notes for a day. I can curl up on my couch without contortion to reach the outlet; I can, literally, work anywhere.

That all said, I did need to make a few concessions to get more out of my iPad. I recently bought a Luvvitt keyboard--less expensive and better designed than the Zaggitech keyboard case, the Luvvitt has been a godsend (I'm using it now). I do the majority of my writing in Markdown, including my formatting, or straight HTML. If you're on an iOS device, try to create an inline link--you know:

<a href="">linky</a>.

Just see how fun it is. For the longest time, I thought I was too lazy to write too much; turns out, the iPad on screen keyboard was just my blocker. At last, my words flow free like a river of perspicacity!

I also just received my Studio Neat's Cosmonaut stylus, and while I haven't spent much more than 10 minutes working with it, I've been pretty pleased with the results. I'm less an artist, and more of a compulsive scrawler, so I mostly just want my iPad handy to scribble down a quick list or create a quick and pretty crappy diagram. I'll put it through its paces in the next couple weeks, and I'll see how it goes.

Finally, I tote around a couple other accessories--I keep a couple USB cables for random emergencies, my Mifi is pretty much attached to my palm, and naturally I have my iPhone and earbuds rattling around inside.

How Well It's All Working For Me

Lightweight? Check (well, lightweight before I load up my bag for the day). Functional? Check. Stylish? Big check. This is, for all intents and purposes, my dream gadget setup, and basically endlessly versatile.

I do have a couple minor complaints--the bag itself is a bit free-form on the interior, especially compared to the clever O-ring organizer bags of Tom Bihn's system. I installed a Purseket (yes, really, "as seen on Oprah"), but I'm thinking I might install some D-rings in the seams of the purse and re-attach all my pouches. This could also be a disaster, which is why I haven't done so yet, but I do miss the seamless organization I had with my Bihns.

Concluding Thought

I'm constantly amazed by how much my "essential gear" has physically shrunk over the years. From toting a 15" MBP in grad school, to a 13" Air as a freelancer, and now all the way down to the iPad is pretty amazing, especially as thumb drives, external hard drives, etc. have all evaporated with the hardware.