Kristian Glass - Do I Smell Burning?

Mostly technical things

Everyday Carry

I’m rarely without my shoulder bag, a habit that’s persisted since my school years.

Here’s a selection of what it contains, as a reminder/inventory for myself, for potential interest to others, and because I have an Amazon referral account.

Waterproof Roll-top Dry Bags

I learnt the hard way the danger of leaks and spills inside my bag. These are light-weight and great for easy-access subdivisions - one for cables, one for laptop etc.

Torch

Incredibly bright (1k Lumens), small, lightweight and fairly cheap. My phone has a torch but I often want to conserve its battery, and have something less valuable I can throw around! This isn’t the model I own but the closest I could find.

Eye mask and earplugs and inflatable neck pillow

I don’t need these to sleep, but they really help when flying or in an early morning cab to the airport, where catching up on otherwise-missed sleep can really help with the rest of my day.

Travel Router

Fantastic little device - a single device to connect to a new WLAN so all my other devices can keep connecting to it. Particularly useful given how frustrating connecting a Kindle can be, or those various captive portals in hotels etc.! At some point I’ll get around to making it do smart VPN things…

Thanks to Chris Lamb for the recommendation! I’m running vanilla firmware on mine, but Chris has lamby/lamby-ansible-router if you want OpenWRT.

MacBook

I didn’t originally want a MacBook, but after my 13” Air took two pints of tea and it was the only thing available for next-day delivery, I grew to like it.

It’s incredibly light, and does nearly everything I need - builds code, runs Docker, runs VirtualBox / Vagrant - the only times I wish for something beefier are when I’m running Firefox!

iPad

I picked up a (relatively) cheap refurbished 2017 iPad and it’s been great. My MacBook is light and portable, but my iPad is even more so, especially when you factor in the power supplies - I don’t need to pack anything extra for my iPad as it runs off the same kit as my iPhone.

I particularly use it a lot for video chat (freeing up my MacBook) and Slack (keeping my MacBook more focussed).

I have an ESR folio case which keeps it nicely protected and serves as a convenient stand.

Kindle Voyage

I thought I’d never give up on dead-tree books. I still haven’t, but when it comes to fiction, the ability to have the next book in the series right there, along with a week’s worth of reading in my coat pocket, was awesome.

For non-fiction where I want to scribble notes, flick between sections, and leave bookmarks scattered throughout, I doubt I’ll ever go Kindle - at least until Amazon MatchBook comes to the UK and I get free search and indexing.

Haribo Gold-Bears

Because sometimes the blood sugar needs a boost. These are resistant to temperature ranges and getting squashed!

Notebooks

I’ve started Bullet Journal-ing (ish) so pack personal and work notebooks

Cable/adaptor bag

The cables always end up a tangled mess, whatever I try, but at least keeping them in their own bag minimises the impact on everything else

Apple USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter

Essential kit given the MacBook’s general lack of ports, this provides HDMI and USB-A.

Miscellaneous Cables

The great thing about standards is there’s so many to choose from

I’m a huge fan of Amazon Basics for cables, or Anker for what they don’t stock.

Power Bag

A bag from an old set of headphones carrying what I generally need to Power Stuff - if I’m travelling somewhat light I’ll just take this and it provides a lot of what I really need

Portable USB Charger

Invaluable for keeping my phone running, the odd occasion when my Kindle needs it, and I can run my MacBook from it.

Thanks to Meri Williams for the recommendation!

Mu Plug Folding USB Charger

Small lightweight USB charger for the occasions when I actually have a wall to plug in to.

Lightning cable

For my iPhone, iPad, and Magic Keyboard

USB A to Micro-B

For my Kindle and battery

Europe Bag

Because I travel to Europe enough that it’s worth having a small bag of two-pin adaptors I can just grab as necessary

European USB Adaptor

Small and light and cheap, letting me save a more general two-to-three-pin adaptor for when I really need it

European Apple Adaptor

I don’t know if I’d bother buying one but I got this free from a friend who didn’t need it, and like the USB charger, it’s convenient to just plug in and go

Two European two-to-three-pin adaptors

Straightforward adaptors to convert things as needed. If I’m away for a while and have luggage space I’ll also pack a UK four-way for convenience, but two of these go a long way

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