Every Day Carry

I've never thought much about what I carry with me every day.  I just load my pockets and go.  Now I've found out there is an entire genre of websites built around "EDC", or Every Day Carry.  Apparently some people don't just load their pockets, they pack luggage:

I'm pretty sure somewhere in there this guy has a kitchen sink.

I've always subscribed to the old adage, probably military in origin, that says, "Travel light and freeze at night."  I doubt I'll ever need to drag around a case of MRE's or a dome tent, so I've pared down what I carry on me to this:

Depending on the season and what clothes I can wear (shorts and t-shirt vs jeans and a jacket) I'll often carry, where legally allowed, a small pistol, either in a waist holster (shown) or a pocket holster.  Since I was a kid I've carried a pocket knife, and now a car FOB and an apartment key, an iPhone 6, a nylon (?) wallet from REI (that has lasted 10 years with zero sign of wear), and a Casio watch.  Not shown are a Medic Alert bracelet and a wedding ring.  That's it.  My glasses are the kind that darken when outdoors, so I don't even need sunglasses anymore.

In my car I keep a small bag containing a sheath knife, a glass breaker/seatbelt cutter, a screwdriver with various tips, a Gerber multi-tool (small saw, blade, file), a couple of spare carabiners, a phone charger, a space blanket, and in a second compartment underneath, a pair of Mechanix gloves and small first aid kit.  I can usually find a spare bottle of water somewhere, a koozie, and a few towels in my car, too. 

And finally, as I usually spend an inordinate amount of time waiting for every thing *agony* I carry an iPad mini and some wireless headphones.  I'll usually read news (BBC, The Guardian, AP News, CNN, The Economist), listen to podcasts (I like Ted Talks, Planet Money, The Indicator, American History Tellers), and read Kindle books (currently Directorate S: The CIA and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Steve Coll).  Rarely fiction, and not much music, either.

I suppose, except for an absolutely apocalyptic event, I have what I need.  So how about you?  What do you carry daily with you?

S

EDIT:  In the back of my car I have a plastic box with a small tire compressor, jumper cables, and other assorted car/road emergency equipment.

Boys and their toys

No, unfortunately I didn't realize my dream of owning a vintage Austin Healey or Alfa Romeo.  In my next life maybe, but it doesn't look too promising for this one.  What I did buy, though, was a new camera.

It's still just a point-and-shoot variety, but this one has a 30X optical zoom, 'cause, you know, sometimes a guy just has to zoom in on something 30 times.  :)

For a few years now I've used a simple pocket camera that has served me admirably:

To photograph cars at a car show or similar it's been great, and I'll still use it some, but recently I've wanted a photo of something that was just a bit out of range and I was dead in the water with this one.

I learned long ago that anything with much more than an on/off button is too complex for me.  Consumer Reports and lots of user reviews said this one was easy peasy.  Sold!  And so far the camera has been.  It's setting it up to connect (via Wifi) with my computer, iPad, iPhone, etc that has been a pain. 

The instructions just assume everyone starts out with at least an Associates Degree in Computer Technology.  They really shouldn't let a techie write the how-to instructions for a consumer electronic device....they can't think simple enough.  I finally had to call in my in-house IT guru (K) and she set me up.  Sort of.

Take a picture...press x button...wait for it...it connects to my computer...do this...do that...drag it here...on and on.  Finally, about 8 steps later I was able to produce a picture I could share on my blog.  Jeez, this is gonna take all day to download all my car pics.  

*OMG, what have I done?  Can I take it back?  Where's the box?*

But then, on my iMac, I did something (unknown) and suddenly a pop-up asked, "Do you want to download your pictures directly to iPhoto?"  

ABSO-FRICKIN'-LUTELY I DO!  (Apple to the rescue! :)

Bada Bing....now it works like a champ.  God does indeed look after idiots, drunks, and now the tech challenged, too.  :)

Have a great weekend everyone.  Stay warm.

S

My wife and her gadgets

My wife, the lovely and talented K, is addicted to gadgets.   

Marketing courses at business schools all across the land teach how to appeal to people with her mentality.  They're studying her like psychologists study rats in a maze.  

"What classes you taking this semester, Bill?"  

"Oh, you know, the usual....B law 314, statistics 421, management 330, and Advanced Kelly 4540."

I have periodic garage sales just to get the gadgets she "couldn't live without" out of the house to make room for the next batch of gadgets I know she'll be bringing home soon.

She has waffle makers, panini makers, tea makers, mixers, food processors, crock pots, a "Magic Bullet" blender, some kind of big fancy blender, a mandolin, multiple coffee makers that were "to die for" last week, but this week are just not cool anymore.

These garage sales often come back to bite me in the ass when she sees an advertisement for a gizmo that she once had, then I sold, and now she wants again.  She's gone full circle....she's become a serial same-gadget buyer.  

I tolerate all those kitcheny things because, honestly, I eat very well.  And besides, they're not very expensive....$40 here, $60 there....they're not breaking the bank.

Kelly's vision of Heaven

Her electronic gadgets are a whole 'nuther matter, however.  Those little electronic bastards cost a fortune!  Here are the ones she's had that I can remember:

HP laptop

HP NetBook

iMac (mine now)

MacBook

Nintendo Wii

Kindle, generation 1

Kindle, generation 2

Kindle Paperwhite

Kindle Fire

Google Nexxus

Samsung Galaxy S2

iPod Shuffle

iPod Nano

iPad, generation 1

iPad Mini

iPhone 3

iPhone 3S

iPhone 5

There are probably more, but my brain is too shell-shocked to remember them all.

Today she saw on Facebook that one of her friends accidentally washed his iPod Nano, so she said she was going to sell him her old one.  I can see what's coming next:  She bought it for $160 a month ago, now she'll sell it used for $80, and a month from now Apple will unveil a "new, improved version in 10 striking new colors", and of course she'll just have to have one for the pre-order super-sweet "better hurry 'cause they won't last long at this price" of $180. 

Publicly Apple will say the higher price is due to "raw material price increases", but among themselves they'll just giggle and call it the "Kelly premium".

I'm considering an intervention.  (Who am I kidding.  I don't have a chance in hell of pulling it off.  :)

S

What's the point?

This is pretty cool:  In the paper today was a story about a guy in Montana that makes iPad, iMac, and iPhone accessories out of wood.  It seems pine beetles had killed 10,000 trees on his family's property and he was trying to figure out what to do with the dead trees.   He came up with "Bad Beetle".

Before it rots into mush the wood is salvaged and "re-purposed" into these attractive cases and stands.

If I was into fancy cases and such I'd probably get one myself.  But here's what I don't get:  Apple, Samsung and all the rest spend billions of dollars to miniaturize their devices, right?  It's a HUGE deal when they can make a case .02 of an inch thinner.  It gives them massive bragging rights and they can charge a few bucks more....image is everything.

Then we buy these gadgets and before we leave the store buy fashion cases the size of a small paperback book.  Or worse....

I guess that's supposed to be a bar of chocolate?

Is this really an iPhone case?  For mom or the kid?

What's the point in making them a silly millimeter smaller if we're gonna wrap 'em in huge cases?  My iPhone case is just a thin sticky type of rubber, and that's only because I'm too butterfingered to hold on to the slick glass and chrome case it comes with straight out of the box.  And I'm cheap.

S

Is it just me?

I have got to be the un-luckiest person in the world.  This morning I was perusing the news and there was the tech guy from the NYT raving about Dashlane.  It's an app that can remember all your passwords (and we all know what trouble I have with that) and is pinky swear absolutely secure.  You can see it here, after the obligatory commercial, of course.

Whoa....thank you God!  It was as if the techie had said, "Listen up Scott Park....this is for YOU!"  I called for K to come see.  We both went back to our computers, her PC and my iMac, and downloaded it.  It will automatically sync everything between ALL your devices once set up.  *happy dance*

On K's PC the app came up and said, "Welcome.  We see that you have all these accounts and we have noted everything and upgraded you to 99.999% secure passwords.  You no longer have to sign in for anything, we'll do it for you automatically for as long as you shall live.  Enjoy."

On my iMac it said, "Click here to download.  Thank you."  Then......nothing.

HELLO.  Now what?  *silence*

I called K back over and asked her to take over for me as she is an excellent techie.  Nada.

Now her PC, iPhone and iPad are all synced up, while I'm still sittin' here beatin' 2 rocks together trying to make fire.  Grog sad.  

This has got to be the absolutely most user UN-friendly app EVER!  If it works on an iPhone and an iPad, why not on my  iMac?  I think there's some guy back at Techie Central who sees my name pop up and says, "Hey guys, come here.  It's him again.  You wanna screw with him some more?" *giggle*

Bastards.

S

Don't Mess With Texas

You speed through a small town in North Texas and the local Constabulary will run you down and shoot your ass!  Oh, I sorta forgot to mention the guy was a White Supremacist who was likely involved in the shooting death of the head of the Colorado prison system.  

The perp led the cops on a high-speed chase and eventually wrecked out, then got out and engaged in an exchange of gunfire with said Deputy.  Bad move lead-foot!  He was airlifted to a hospital where he was pronounced brain dead.  Game...set...match.

Haha...."brain dead"....White Supremacist....how ironic.

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"So, dad....are you enjoying the iPad we gave you for Christmas?"

The life of a technological Neanderthal is NOT easy.  I should know.  ;)

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Sunday afternoon Luke the Wonderdog attends his first obedience class.  I'm thinking he'll turn his teacher into a cat lover within a week.

If this doesn't work I'm thinking "military school".

Have a great weekend everyone.  :)

S

Damned if I do, damned if I don't

My eyesight sucks.  I've worn glasses since I was a little kid, and later in life tried contact lens, but found them to be more trouble than they were worth.  They were just very uncomfortable, and besides, by then I was totally used to glasses.  And oddly enough, as I'm nearsighted, I sometimes take my glasses off to read if the print is too small.

Then about 8 or 9 years ago (I never did have a good sense of time) I had a series of detached retinas in my left eye....they kept lasering it back on, it kept coming back off.  They finally got that fixed, but the result is I have zero peripheral vision on my left side.

My right eye has gotten substantially stronger to compensate. (Thank you God!)  You learn how to get by.  For example, I put one of those tiny convex (?) mirrors on my driver's side rearview mirror to help me with my blind spot when I drive....so far so good.

A couple months ago I had a spot on the side of my nose (where my eyeglasses rest) removed as it was diagnosed as skin cancer.  The cancer is all gone, but in the process they mucked up the tear duct in my good eye.  GRRR!  What was it Roseanne Roseanna Dana said on SNL?..."It's always something".

Now here's the other side of my conundrum:  I hate carrying stuff around.  Unlike what the late actor Karl Mauldin said in his TV commercial, if it won't fit in my pockets, I DO leave home without it.  "Travel light, freeze at night."  I finally broke down and started carrying sunglasses, which for me was a major concession.

E-readers have been a mixed blessing.  I loved my Kindle, but it was limited.  I wanted to be able to check email and the internet while on the move.  iPhone to the rescue.  Sort of.  It met my requirement of being small and "carryable", but dang that print was tiny!  I mean, you can only stretch/enlarge something so much.

Next, the iPad.  UGH!  Waaaaay too big to tote around.  How about a tablet?  Better....  I bought a Samsung Whizbang III (this was before the iPad mini), and it's worked pretty well.  Still a hassle to carry, but all things considered it could be worse.  Yesterday it was a beautiful day and K and I settled in to a nice table outside Starbucks to drink coffee and read, but the sun's glare off my tablet made reading virtually impossible.  UGH again!

What I need is a screen the size of my gigantic iMac screen that folds in half, then half again, then half again, then half again, and fits in my shirt pocket.  Can any of you really smart geeky-type people help me out here? Invent me one, oh, and dip it in that non-glare stuff, too, while you're at it.  And please hurry....I'm not getting any younger.

S

High tech pooping

Presenting...*drum roll*...the iPotty.  TaDa!

Really?  Most people will just look at this and chuckle or maybe shake their head and think "whatever."  I look at it and think, "The little fucker has his own iPad?"  So now even 2-year-olds have blown past me on the technologically savvy scale.  OH....THE SHAME!  And does the little tyke have one of those Bluetooth thingys stuck in his ear, too?

Whatever happened to that universal fixture of every well furnished bathroom, the magazine rack?  For that matter, what's happened to magazines?  Have you bought a Newsweek magazine lately?  No?  That's because they don't print it anymore.  Pfffft!  Gone.  Online only.  Every month my magazines seem to contain a few less pages of reading material and a few more pages of ads.

But back to the immediate crisis in my life.  The annual Consumer Electronics Show is now underway in Lost Wages...er...Las Vegas.  Nerds from all over have assembled to show off all their newest gizmos, things that to me look like more nails in my low-tech coffin.  They've even taken over that most holy of passions in my life....cars.

Nowadays most mainstream cars (the kind that I can afford, ie: no Ferrari's or Maserati's or Aston Martin's) no longer talk about performance.  All buyers care about today is a car's iPod connectivity or it's Bluetooth capability or it's ability to electronically parallel park itself.  And getting 60 mpg from their 3-cylinder skinny-tired hybrid "mobility device".  Where's the fun in that?

I read somewhere that a majority of kids these days don't even get a drivers license until they're pretty much forced to.  They just hole up in their rooms with their iThis and iThat and text back and forth to each other, avoiding personal contact (and daylight) at all cost.

Is this what the Apocalypse looks like?

S

You can't bullshit an old bullshitter

The world's toughest job?  Being the public relations guy for a bank.  This was a tiny little article in today's paper:

Greece offered universal health coverage until an agreement with its international lenders (banks) stipulated the unemployed must pay for their own treatment.

Isn't this just bringing the unemployed into line with the banking policy of charging customers a hefty fee for bouncing a check?  They're just charging you more of what they already know you don't have any of.  Duh!

A close second might be the PR guy representing Foxconn, the huge Chinese electronics contractor who employs hundreds of thousands of low-wage workers to assemble iPads for Apple.  (Their motto...."The beatings will continue until morale improves.") 

"They actually like working 18 hour days, on account of there isn't anything to do back in the dorm with their 250 roommates."

The Feds are suing Bank of America, accusing them of making home loans without ever even checking borrower credentials, a policy known mockingly within the company as "the Hustle".  They then sold the loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, where they mostly went straight into default.  

The taxpayers had to assume the loss when Fannie and Freddie failed, and now the Feds are going back on B of A.  How might the bank's PR guy possibly spin this?  "Ahh....umm....the Hustle?....that was just a dance contest we had on casual Friday's, that's all.  We're good."

Another tough one....the PR guy for bankrupt American Airlines.  "If we don't give big bonuses to our senior executives we'll lose our top talent to our competitors."  

Dude, you're BANKRUPT.  You don't HAVE any top talent.  That's why you're BANKRUPT!

You can't bullshit an old bullshitter.  ;)

S

"It's deja vu all over again"....

....At least that's what the legendary Yogi Berra would call it.  Only after I'd left the store did it dawn on me that I must be entering my second childhood.  I can just barely remember it, but I felt like the ultimate 1st grade stud when I got my first big boy tablet:

Now here I am many birthday candles later with another new "tablet":

It's a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0). 

We're breaking ground tomorrow on a new custom home and it looks like I'll be spending a fair amount of my semi-retired time on-site.  From what I'm told a "tablet" is the new clipboard, the universal symbol that says, "Don't ask me to actually DO anything.  I'm just a supervisor."

So far my impression is it's very intuitive, which is good because if it wasn't, this old Neanderthal would simply be the proud owner of a Samsung Rock.  I had an early iPad and didn't care for it because it was too big to lug around.  This is about the size of a Kindle.....juuuuust right.

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If you're on the waiting list for a new iPhone 5 your wait just got a little longer.  It seems that last night there was a big riot at one of the Foxconn factories in China that makes components for Apple:

The plant employs 79,000 workers and it took 5,000 riot police to restore order.  The facility is closed for at least today.  If there's a silver lining in this (for the US) it's that Chinese workers are getting restless and demanding better pay and working conditions.  Maybe we'll see a few of those outsourced jobs start to come back home?

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The TV news (?) this morning was all abuzz about who wore what to the Emmy Awards last night.  What caught my eye/ear was they kept saying "....and it looked like she was wearing Jimmy Choo shoes."

So how can you tell?  Is there some identifying logo on there somewhere?  I mean, if you're wearing the shoes, and your foot is covering the name, how would anyone know?  I guess in glitzy Hollywood this is a big status symbol, but where I'm from this just screams, "Look at me!  I just dropped a THOUSAND bucks on a pair of shoes.  How dumb am I?"  I wanna know who Jimmy Choo's VP Sales/Marketing is.  He's good.  Really good!

Guess I'd better go do something constructive.  Have a good day everyone.

S

Suddenly I feel like a techie!

I never thought of myself as being too technologically savvy.  Far from it.  I proudly wear the label "Neanderthal".  Then I read about Larry Rogers and his wife Joan in the local newspaper.  We'll just conveniently skip over the fact that they're 86 and 84 years old respectively.  


To quote Larry, he doesn't have a "computer, cell phone, iPhone, uPhone, myPod, yourPod, hisPad, herPad, answering machine,VCR, cable TV," etc.  He still uses a rotary dial telephone, a manual typewriter, and watches TV on a boxy 19-inch model.  He did have to break down recently and buy a digital converter box so he could keep his antique Magnavox TV up and running.  He's never used an ATM machine.  When he buys something and the clerk expects him to swipe his credit card, he just hands it to them instead and says, "Here, you do it."  He said "I tried a time or two, but after twisting that credit card around every which way, putting the stripe on this side and that, I just started saying 'you do it'".


He drives a 1992 Ford Crown Victoria.  It has a cassette player and cruise control, neither of which he has ever used.  He says he doesn't own a tape, and "the idea of sticking the gas pedal open just sounds nuts.  Why, I wouldn't feel in control."  And Joan doesn't even own an electric clothes dryer.  "I get out there in the sun and hang clothes on the line.  It's good exercise."


Understand, these aren't poor people, and they're certainly not dumb.  Larry, a veterinarian, retired 30 years ago thanks to his smart investments, and since then they've traveled all over the world.  (By airplane?)  He still manages his portfolio with spiral bound ledgers and a hand held calculator.  He did, however, recently buy a new calculator after his decades-old TI model finally died.  (Whoa.....slow down there, Larry!)


So you see, next to Larry and Joan I feel like an absolute techie.  I have an iPhone with lots of apps, several of which I can actually use.  I have a Kindle and a computer and I know how to blog.  I have a digital camera and, yes, even an electrical clothes drying machine.  


No, I'm not making fun of the Rogers'.  Deep down I actually envy them.  Imagine being happy with what you have and where you live and what you drive.  Do all these modern whiz-bang tools we have today really make our lives easier and less complicated?  I think I know how Larry and Joan would answer that.  I'd be willing to meet them half way.  ;)


S