I am always interested to see what people carry around with them and so I will inflict my interest/nosiness/curiosity on you but in reverse. In addition, this gives me a good reason to clean the thing out. Here are the things I commonly carry about with me.
This is the 2007 model of Ogio’s Hiphop bag. It’s got quite a lot of pockets most of which I don’t use. I got it on sale at Henry’s camera for about $30. Best Buy was asking $80 for the 2008 model so I think that worked out rather well.
I made mention of this in an earlier post about notebooks. This is my Vostro 2510 laptop. Dell made them for a while then stopped and now makes them again (also available in black, apparently). This was about the only laptop in my price range with a discrete video card. I generally have the battery out of it because it’s fairly uncommon for me to be far from an outlet when using my computer and I’ve read that one can achieve a longer battery lifespan if the battery is left out when not needed (keeps it from being too hot). It is not depicted because batteries are boring.
This is my Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet and associated USB cable. All but one of the computer doodles I’ve posted to this point were drawn with this. It also has a mouse but I use it very infrequently so I no longer carry it around. I actually use this pretty infrequently while I’m out of the house so it likely won’t make it back in.
These are my current crop of pens. From left to right (write?), Blue Sharpie ($0.50 at going out of business sale for the sole downtown office supply store), Red Double-tip Sharpie (ditto), Duke Copper Temple Fountain Pen ($9 at Gold Quills, currently loaded with Private Reserve Avocado Ink), Duke Beijing Opera Mask Fountain Pen ($12 at Gold Quills, currently loaded with Sanford/Higgins Sepia Ink), and lastly Staedtler drafting pencil/lead holder with HB lead.
The front smallish zippered pocket carries these oddments. Wall plug USB charger (primarily for iPod), iPod connector/charger cable, Staedtler vinyl eraser (I typically forget that I have this and just scratch things out and start again) and SanDisk 128MB flash drive. I bought that in a hurried panic the day before my interview for my current job. I needed to collect drawings from third year project group members and that was the best way. It cost me about $55. It hurts me to consider how much storage that same $55 would purchase today. I keep it around for emergency file transfers.
Amy noticed what I was doing at about this point and asked me why I was taking glamour shots of my notebook. This is the Xonex Rü notebook (also from the earlier notebook post) and the freebie lint-free cloth that I failed to use on my laptop for its picture. I usually use it to wipe off the screen (a terrible fingerprint magnet) and rarely think to clean the very glossy cover.
Lastly, we come to entertainment and sharp things. I have a second generation 4GB iPod nano that goes nearly everywhere with me. Currently it’s loaded with a really eclectic mix that resulted from filling it totally at random because I was tired of the same old albums that I always put on. The earbuds are Skullcandy Ink’d Buds that I got on sale to replace the stock iPod phones. They are not particularly well constructed but the sound quality is miles ahead of the stock phones and they were really inexpensive. The knife is just a knife. It is useful for cutting things and sharpening pencils whenever I happen to have a wood pencil around. I got it from my old job and the company name has almost completely worn off the handle. Not pictured because it is dull (he said, aware that one of the pictures was of an eraser) is my umbrella which fits neatly into one of the mesh side pockets.