Two encounters with the grift

I have an unwholesome interest in scams. Not because I romanticize them; because I cannot imagine devoting that level of effort when one could do something useful instead.

A call from a boiler room

One day back in the 20^th century I got a cold call from a young lady working in a boiler room somewhere. She had an Exciting Offer for me. She talked through her script with earnest, clumsy enthusiasm. I let her run for a minute, then gave her a couple of softball questions, which she fielded by awkwardly reading scripted answers. Then I took a guess.

“Is today your first day at this job?”

“Yeah, sorry, I’m still learning.”

“No harm done. You’re doing great. But can you tell me how your employer makes money from this?”

She started to paraphrase the rap from her script, but I interrupted her. “No, that is not how they make money.” Then I explained the scam to her.

She paused a long moment. “Wait. Really?”

“Yeah. Now, I don’t want to tell you what to do. Working this kind of job is a bummer. You wouldn’t have taken it if you didn’t really need the money.”

“I sure do.” She said it with conviction I was glad she could not muster when reading the script.

“So think about this. Your employer is lying to me in order to rip me off. Are you sure that they will keep the promises they made to you?”

“Oh.”

“Hang in there. And have a good day.”

“Thank you.”

I felt like a hero.

Short con on the street

One day I was walking up Powell Street in San Francisco, near Union Square, among the tourists. A man in a nice suit and no necktie approached me. He sheepishly confessed to being in a jam; things had gone sideways for him, his wife & kid were holed up in a hotel room, and he needed a little money to get his car and them back on the road.

He was good, but I made him work for it with some pointed questions. He had great answers, and he really sold the mix of anxiety and embarrassment. I gave him forty bucks, and he handled the blow beautifully — grateful and eager to go sort out his troubles. Worth every penny.

Maybe six or eight years later, I was walking up Powell again, and I saw him scouting the crowd; he was even wearing the same suit. I hoped I might get to see him work someone else. But instead he approached me. I understood him not recognizing me; the last time I had been clean-shaven, with my hair tied back, dressed casually, while this time I was beardy with my hair down and wore a good suit.

It was uncanny having him give me the exact same pitch again. I drew out my wallet, pulled out a couple of twenties, grinned, and said, “You told me the same story right here on Powell Street years ago; I gave you forty because I admired your craft. I’ll give you another forty now if you tell me why you marked me.”

He tried to bluff past it. He didn’t know what I was talking about, he had to get back to his wife and kid, blah blah blah.

“No, I already heard that one. But I really will pay to hear what about me got you to choose me as your mark,” I said cheerfully.

His demeanor changed. He was sorry he had bullshitted me. The reality was that he was in a different jam, but he figured the wife and kid thing would be more convincing. He started to lay out this whole different story.

“That’s not what I asked.” I waved the money. “Satisfy my curiosity, or don’t.”

His demeanor changed even more sharply. He was suddenly in tears. He was desperate because he was in trouble. He trembled. The guy was good. I feigned a sympathetic expression and enjoyed him working it for half a minute. But I pulled my hand with the money closer to me.

“Heartbreaking,” I said. “But not what I asked. It’s easy money. Do you want it? Tell me how you marked me.” I expected a lie, but was ready to enjoy one.

He stopped the shtick, suddenly and completely. He was expressionless, and for a moment he met my gaze with a psychopath’s dead eyes.

Then he just walked away.

Virus-cautious socializing

Looking at covid, flu, et cetera, my sweetheart & I are trying to live a virus-cautious life, so that compels us to have a protocol for socializing.

Indoors

Just as one doesn’t like to share air with folks wrestling with obvious symptoms like coughing, we are wary of folks who have been in big risky crowds et cetera in the last few days.

Since rapid covid tests are not so accurate these days, we pack a Metrix test kit for use before sharing indoor air … though the awkward bit is that it takes 30 minutes to run the test. Ideally we would build a small circle of folks testing.

We are also looking at more aggressive HEPA filters and far-UV lights improving the odds.

Outdoors

We have both gas & electric heaters set up for our covered patio. They aren’t strong enough to overcome the coldest times of winter, but they take the edge off enough to be cozy on a chilly day if one also dresses warmly.

We are also trying to cultivate a list of venues with covered & heated outdoor seating.

• Victoria Bar
  our favorite, with good nosh — NE Albina
• The Rambler Bar
  N Mississippi
• ¿Por Qué No?
  taqueria — SE Hawthorne
• Bar Maven, Bar Carlo, Shami Cafe, 5 & Dime Bar
  surprisingly good food (except 5&D) but none of these have heat outside — SE Foster

We are also up for an adventure to try places like …

• Mirisata Restaurant
  Sri Lankan food — SE Belmont
• Laurelhurst Market
  a world of beef — E Burnside
• Tiny Bubble Room
  taproom & grill — N Lombard
• Interurban Saloon
  N Mississippi
• The Knock Back Bar
  NE Alberta

Desk stuff

At the time I write this, I keep a nice home office which I currently cannot use because I am camping out away from home as part of my bubble's pandemic protocol. I just finished setting up a smaller but still fairly elaborate desk at the place where I will be for the next month or two (or, heaven forbid, longer) and snapped a picture of it to share with Facebook friends. Folks were so interested that I have been writing up what all my Desk Stuff is, so I thought it would be fun to transcribe that here. At the time I post this it is still a work in progress.

1

I suffer the constant temptation to clutter already-cluttered desk with items which are strictly decorative. In this reduced arragnement, I have sweated it down to two items.

I have never met a Hindu programmer who did not keep a representation of Ganesh at their desk. I am not qualified to give puja, but I find that he is patient with western pagans with modest offerings, so I give him a little “jai Ganesh!” or a bit of candy from time to time, and credit him with the smooth running of my computer. If things get really dire fixing something, I light the candle.

The Dymaxion icosahedron globe is a relatively new acquisition. I am a bit of a Buckminster Fuller enthusiast and the map is my favorite of his designs. I’m starting to think I should have gone for the blue/orange version, thoough, because when unfolded the dark blue oceans of the satellite image version I have are hard to distinguish from the magnets which hold the globe together.

2

The important thing at the end of the desk is an old iPhone, now repurposed just to run the BeFocused app, which is a smart pomodoro timer. I do not really practice the Pomodoro Technique rigorously — though I am working on it — but it does help keep me self-aware about my time and working rhythms. Keeping that in reach and visible and able to make its own independent sounds really helps.

A little organizer holds my favorite fancy bullet journal marking supplies: colored washi tape, sticky tabs, color coding dots, a correction ribbon, and a Postit glue stick. I have been stepping up my BuJo game this year. I do not keep an elaborate journal as many folks do — the simplicity is part of what makes it work for me — part of what makes the BuJo work for me is how it engages my attention through getting to fuss with paper products.

Then I have a little wooden playing card holder. My stationary obsessions extend to a love for index cards, so it is nice to be able to set up a tiny kanban board with them at my desk.

3

On the left side of the desk, I have my iPad on a stand, a little storage box with some alternate cables and other supplies, and a new acquisition: the big Contour ShuttlePro.

The Shuttle is programmable keypad with a jogwheel, primarily designed for audio and video editing. The driver software is smart enough to recognize which application is selected and to deliver shortcuts appropriate to it to the device, so I can work with one hand on the trackpad and one on the Shuttle. I'm just getting set up with it because for many years I relied on a different (and better) solution the Razer Nostromo, a gamers' programmable left-hand keypad with the same application awareness. Alas, they ended Mac support for the Nostromo and its successors a while back, and the new Mac OS Big Sur killed the controller software, so I had to change platforms.

4

The inexpensive flat-pack desk I got has open side shelves, so I have a few desktop organizers tucked onto the shelves on the left. I have spare notebooks, extra pens, index cards, sticky notes, a pair of scissors, index cards, stamps, and the like here.

5

My MacBook Pro recently bricked itself and my decade-old iMac was wheezy, so when Apple announced the new Apple silicon Mac Mini, I upgraded to it ... and thus needed to get a new monitor. Dell has a retina-resolution monitor which is Good Enough and a big step up from the monitor I used to have, and it has one of those Dell stands which makes it easy to switch to portrait format. If I am flush later this year, as I hope, I will spring for an awesome main display and rotate this one to use as a tall adjunct display dedicated to reading, writing, and note-taking. It also acts as a USB hub, which helps with the Mini's port limitations.

This also meant I needed to get a USB webcam, especially in this work-from-home quarantine year, and to my pleasant surprise I could find a camera better than what I can reliably transmit over the internet was inexpensive.

6

Together with the webcam, upgrading my machine and doing more remote meetings, I also recently needed to break down and get a proper USB mic rather than rely on my headphone mic, so I got a mic that was not too expensive, well-reviewed ... and old-timey-looking. Interlocutors tell me that I do not quite sound Broadcast Awesome, but much better than before.

On the monitor stand I also keep my (now collectors' item) Silicon Valley Tarot deck (which is witty and surprisingly useful for work), eyeglasses, and a fidget cube.

8

That wacky Keyboardio keyboard arouses the most curiousity, so I have a whole separate post about it.

10

So the big thing here is a vertical file organizer with a mini-whiteboard which I got dirt cheap from of of my favorite catalogues, American Science & Surplus. It is a glamourless plastic thing, unlike the beautiful glass desk WB from Quartet which I lust after but do not really have a proper use for. The organizer has a slightly depressed tray on top for a couple of WB markers, which is a nice touch, keeping those big WB markers away from my other pens. But the cool part — the thing which makes it an essential part of my arsenal — is how in back there are four thick slots for folders, ascending a bit in back stadium-style. These are my Hot Files for stuff I am working on.

I use a set of durable plastic folders with translucent bodies so I can tell what is inside. I have marked each folder with a letter for indexing elsewhere if I need it, though I am not getting so much mileage out of that as I expected. But it is really useful to me that the tabs of the folders are colored, so I color code yellow/orange/red for ascending urgency of things I need to do, plus green for On My Desk But Currently Cool, and blue for Pending Action From Elsewhere. I keep the folder supply upside-down in the back slot, with matching colored sticky dots on each one so it is easy to pull a new folder of the appropriate color for a new project. The limited space in the slots keeps me from holding too much stuff on my desk.

To the left of the organizer thing I have chargers for my watch and phone, wired phone headphones for when I need them, a book of videoconference signs which I made, and three key desk tools: a good retractable pen, a good eraser, and a cheap little desk knife which comes in very handy.

Buy nice stuff

Want to buy nice consumer products from providers I like? Here are unsolicited endorsements of some of my favorite Stuff, and places to get Stuff.

• Other lists
• Stationery & pens
• Computer-adjacent office supplies
• Travel
• Everyday carry
• Toys
• Nerd art
• Clothing
• Grooming
• Housewares
• Consumables
• Everything else

Other lists

Indices like this one

• Cool tools — Kevin Kelly’s index of reviews of all kinds of things, talking not just about the qualities of the product, but about how and why it's useful, like tongue depressors or those glue sticks made of post-it note glue; many entries are just tips and tricks that don’t require buying anything
• Wirecutter — exceedingly in-depth reviews explaining what the best version is for numerous key products — especially electronics — including why that thing is the best and what difference it makes if you go for the best cheap or best spendy alternative
• The Future Of Stuff Store — particularly resiliently-designed products, especially ones which take advantage of cutting-edge materials; the creator also maintains an open list “some things that are really quite good”: “it’s just amazing how good the quality end of manufactured goods is, particularly compared to the landfill-fodder which is the norm”
• Better Living Through Design — various kinds of cunningly-designed kit; the bags and desk accessories are my particular weaknesses
• Pack Hacker — advice for travellers, relevant here because they have a huge library of thoughtful product reviews and recommendations
• Alex Kwa — the kind of minimalism nerd who has an article about how to wear only black; he has assembled a bunch of fun reviews & guides to one-bag travel, minimalism, and more
• The Strategist — a bit lifestyle-magazine-ish, but I forgive it because it has pretty darned good taste in a range of products
• Buy Me Once — many kinds of solidly-made stuff, again described with a bit of lifestyle magazine flavor
• The Ones — a site maintained by some hip but (mostly) practical industrial designers listing their favorite, rock-solid products
• The Sweet Setup — a guide to applications for Apple devices, including not just the best solutions but a lot of advice about using them well
• The Macrumours’ buyers guide — informed guesses about when new versions of Apple products will come out, reducing your chances of getting something and then feeling frustrated to see a spiffy new version released right after you buy it
• “What life-changing item can you buy for less that ^$100?” — a wooly but fun and helpful Reddit discussion
• Kitty Unpretty’s office supply recommendations — some smart eccentric ideas
• Independent map artists — a list of sellers of good weird maps
• Typeface lists — what folks colloquially call “fonts”; a bunch of good ones, and a bunch of type foundries which make good ones

Eccentric product catalogues

• Placed Atoms — a handfull of cool eccentric overdesigned tools; I keep a roll of the tape in my toolchest
• CW&T — a large handful of overdesigned items, including my favorite pen
• Uncommon Goods — nifty, charming, mostly pointless stuff
• Global Industrial Supply — full of treasures, including sturdy office stuff which is often surprisingly affordable
• Deutsche Optik — fancy military surplus and related weird cool stuff
• Varusteleka — odd Finnish military surplus
• The Sportsman’s Guide — more meat-and-potatoes military surplus and weirdness, featuring product descriptions with a dose of redneck whimsy
• Apex Surplus — cool rusty old stuff, mostly sold for use as movie props

Stationery & pens

Catalogues

• Jetpens — a huge catalogue of delicious office supplies from Japan, and has great indices and reviews of various essentials (you can see my personal favorites)
• Nico Neco Zakkaya — twee Japanese stationary and supplies
• Baum•Kuchen — deliciously fussy European & Japanese stationary and supplies
• Mochi Things — more Japanese-style stationary, office supplies, and more with a friendly & functional style
• Discount School Supply — tools for schools & homeschoolers which also have applications in a creative office, like groovy storage and cheap little dry erase boards
• 26 Market — a well-curated collection of fancy eccentric office supplies (and housewares) like ruled manila envelopes, folders with a pocket for each day of the week, waxed cardboard boxes, enameled metal lunchboxes
• Levenger — less reliably my taste than it used to be, and everything is a bit more spendy than it should be, but there is still some good stuff there

Pens

• The Pen Type-B — it is a crime that the website does not have a sound-and-video clip of the satisfying pop of sliding open my all-time favorite pen; it is designed to use refills with the ink for …
• Pilot Hi-Tec C — a very good gel pen available in various colors & formats
• Pilot G-2 — the Hi-Tec C’s cousin, IMHO the cheap pen best for graceful writing
• Zebra Mildliners — highlighter-style felt-tip pens in subdued colors, useful for highlighting, structuring written notes, and sketching
• Pilot FriXion pens — the only good erasable pens I have used, not just spiffy on the merits but also useful combined with …
• Pocket pens — I have a section on those under EDC below

Other goodies

• Rocketbook — an array of notebooks and other stationery made with reusable ”paper“ which easily wipes clean with a damp cloth if you use FriXion pens, supported by an app for easily scanning snapshots of what you write; though the “paper“ is plastic-y to the touch it writes very nicely so I love using the index cards for games and the Orbit pad for work meeting notes which I will transcribe into electronic form
• Chromalabel — an array of color-coding stickers … including kraft paper
• Studio Neat — a handful of very spiffy office tools; the unique things I recommend are their giant panobook “desk notebook” and matching-size panopad sticky notes
• The Cortex podcast store — offers a few nifty, unique bits of stationery including my all-time favorite notebook that isn’t the classic Leuchtturm 1917

Computer & office gear

Brands

• Anker & Belkin — the two big manufacturers I trust most for stuff like chargers, cables, and other USB accessories (and related kit)
• Elevation Lab — good cables and device stands; it is worth watching the video for their QuickDraw desk cable clip
• Twelve South — unique accessories for computers, phones, and other electronics
• Ergomi — an array of desk tools, especially interesting if one is on the go and needs to be able to bring one’s “desk” anywhere
• Gustav — when I was working a job which had me running from conference room to conference room with my laptop and other kit, I daydreamed about a specialized Laptop Bucket; too late for me, these folks make one, and a few bits of similar gear (Ikea also makes something similar)
• DTTO — cases for Apple devices, including the iPad Mini case I settled on after a long hunt: inexpensive, protective, grippy without feeling gross, with a stand good for both portrait and landscape use
• The Magic Sleeve — a cunning magnetic felt gear pocket/desk pad; watch the video to get seduced
• Conway Electric — nifty, very spendy extension cords and related gear with an Industrial aesthetic
• SuperCalla — USB cables with a set of magnets along the length which make them easy to wrap or fold neatly
• Native Union — makers of overdesigned tech accessories; I am tickled by their whimsical USB phone handset and their Anchor Cable with a weighted end
• Rolling Square — charging gear and similar; I keep one of their tiny multipurpose USB cables in my go bag, and they have a nifty modular magnetic arm for attaching phones, lights, and chargers to one’s laptop

Classical office supplies

• Grovemade — preposterously swanky desk accessories
• Scotch package scissors — good scissors designed so that one can also use them to open packages
• swivel stapler — a stapler where one can rotate the stapling mechanism 90° away from the lever to make it easy to staple booklets Fluidstance — a line of steel desk whiteboards which I have all over my desk (plus they make cool balance boards to stand on)

Input & output

• Elgato Stream Deck — a highly-customizable “keyboard” with tiny LED displays on each key which knows what application you are currently using to can give you shortcut keys and more; it did so much for my productivity that I eventually upgraded to the XL version
• TourBox — another programmable input device which knows which app you are using and can give you appropriate shortcut keys; their marketing materials do not explain that the weird button & dial design is meant to make it easy to identify the controls by touch with your left hand while your right hand is working a mouse or trackpad
• Keyboario & Ergodox — cool weird ergonomic mechanical computer keyboards; I have a few words which may help you decide if you want one of these
• Protoarc Foldable Ergonomic Bluetooth Keyboard — the best portable keyboard I have found; one can also find a similar, even lighter version branded a few different ways (GoTek Voyage, Targus, iClever, Perixx, Moko, Gomcv, etc) which is pretty good, but charges via micro USB, which I am trying to purge from my life

Videoconferencing

• Elgato Prompter — if you spend a lot of time on videoconferences, using this widget with your webcam will reduce your stress by enabling you to make “eye contact”
• On Air Warning — a little ecosystem with an app, dedicated buttons, and a status light for toggling one’s camera and microphone on and off; one can set the app to freeze your video rather than black it out, which I find convenient when doing something momentarily awkward at my desk
• AnkerWork speakerphones — the voice isolation on the S600 is uncannily good at filtering out all other sound; I presume that other models (and the headphones) use the same tech
• Logitech H390 headset — this inexpensive headset is surprisingly good, though I ordinarily rely on a USB mic Audio-Technica don’t make any more
• Airtime & Boom — useful tools for managing one’s outgoing image in a videoconference; a Setapp subscription includes the latter

Cable management

• Wrap-It cable labels — little colored bits of velcro stuff you can write on to identify what cable connects to what; I also like the velcro cable wraps in matching colors
• Cable Turtles — the tidiest and easiest way to make a long cable shorter
• BlueLounge — a bunch of well crafted solutions to your cable clutter; I dig their CableBox, though one can find equivalents which are less expensive
• braided mesh wire looms — the most convenient way to keep a bunch of cables tidy when stringing them all to the same place

Apple ecosystem apps

• SetApp — a subscription service which provides a big, well-curated catalogue of apps all for one fee, so whenever I need a little utility I start there because they probably have a solution — I have a few favorites:
  • Session — a pomodoro timer with a lot of little advantages, including strong Apple Shortcuts support which I use to automagically start and stop music
  • Bartender — a utility which manages the icons for background apps in the menu bar
  • Mosaic — a utility for tiling windows neatly
  • TaskPaper & Bike — a pair of crisp, simple notes apps made for graceful outlining (from the same developer!)
  • CleanMyMac — a longtime-classic tool for keeping one’s hard drive from getting crufty
  • TypeFace — a font manager for addicts like me
  • NotePlan — a notes app with sophisticated support for time-based organization, tagging, to-dos, et cetera; it has nerdy advantages like having its notes available in the filesystem as plaintext Markdown, and a plug-in architecture for lots of configurability, which I have been migrating to as a replacement for …
• Agenda — a notes app with comparable organizational tools to NotePlan and a bit more polish
• Mailsmith — A crisp email app with good support for GMail
• Things — a very graceful To Do app
• BBEdit — the classic plaintext editor
• Bear — a Markdown app really good for composing writing, with a good browser extension for doing clippings from web pages
• OmniGraffle — a drawing app built for making diagrams which I abuse to do a lot more; it has a Shared Layer mechanism useful for making a big batch of similar images / pages

Other goodies

• Ergodriven — the weird ridged floor mat I use at my standing desk every day
• Bellemond — makers of a superior alternative to the Paperlike tablet screen protector; it reduces glare and makes drawing & handwriting with the Pencil a lot better, though if one only writes on the tablet intermittantly, you may prefer …
• Astropad make a magnetic-removable equivalent tablet screen surface for writing which comes with matching pen tips, Rock Paper Pencil, an anti-reflective screen protector for iPhones which is admirably clear, and a few other interesting implements
• Desk service bell — the ding-for-service bell your parents told you not to ring when you were kid; I have one at my desk and ding it when I finish something

Travel

Clothing

• Bluffworks — makers of travel clothing that doesn’t make you look like a cyberpunk shadowrunner or safari nerd; their Gramercy Blazer has cunning pockets and uses a resilient technical fabric which looks and feels indistinguishable from wool suiting (and yes there are matching trousers)
• ScottEVest — makers of incredibly pocket-rich travel clothing; I like wearing their LightEST Vest under another jacket to keep my stuff handy and organized, there’s even a wacky system for threading cables through the lining so that it is easy to charge devices while they rest in pockets
• Aviator — makers of a lot of travel kit; I love their travel hoodie
• Mizzen & Main — another maker of technical fabric men’s clothing; I dig their dress shirts
• Flip My Tie — A brand of reversible neckties, to get a few more changes when travelling light

Other travel gear

• Matador — a bunch of clever travel tools; I have one of their pocket blankets and use their soap bags on the road
• Lifestraw Peak water bottle — a collapsable water bottle with a built-in lifetime filter which will ensure fresh water whether you end up on a hike in the woods or just in a city where the tapwater is nasty
• Nite-Ize Carabiners — an array of well-designed little clips with a million applications; I particularly like the Microlock S-biners for securing zipper pulls

Luggage

• Evergoods — my single favorite maker of bags and packs, cunning designers of camping gear who turned their attention toward stuff for civilians with a minimalist look that belies sophisticated organizational details; all their stuff is superb and their medium-size travel backpack is the best airplane under-seat bag I have ever used and their CIVIC Access Pouch 2L, is the best dopp-kit-size organizer I have ever encountered
• Tom Bihn — simple, superb soft travel gear; their Aeronaut 30 bag has taken me around the world (and the newer laptop-friendly Techonaut incorporates the improvements I daydreamed about when I did that), and their Synik 22 & 30 laptop / travel backpacks have super organization
• WaterField Designs — their design sensibility straddles classy enough to look professional without looking too fussy in more casual circumstances (especially in their use of waxed canvas); their videos explaining how their bags are meant to be used are worth a watch if only as explorations of thoughtful design; their Air Porter Backpack is a hyper-optmized under-seat carry-on to pair with a rolling case, and their newer Air Travel Backpack is the most professional-feeling one-bag solution I have seen
• Peak Design — camera gear and bags (and the phone cases mentioned above); I use their Everyday Backpack as the name describes; their travel backpack may be the most clever design of the type — note that Huckberry offers handsome variant versions
• Piorama — make some interesting eccentric bags; their A10 duffel has a system of drawstrings so one can expand it from a pretty-big 30L bag to twice its volume, their giant tote is the best design for that I have seen, and their Omni laptop sleeve has pockets and magnets which transform it into a useful desk organizer for office kit or whatever
• Aer — intriguingly designed travel & EDC bags a peer to the makers above, though cannot vouch for having seen them in the flesh; I dig their Capsule Pack
• Babboon To The Moon — bags for people who share my sensibilities about how bags should be structured but want something more colorful
• Freitag — an array of clever bags, each unique because they are made by upcycling the colorful tough canvas they use to cover trucks in Europe; the groovy stop-motion animations showing the bags in use are a delight even if you don’t want to buy one
• Mission Workshop — my favorite fancy bicylists’ bags; they also make some interesting technical clothes
• Saddleback Leather — gorgeous, heavy, sturdy leather luggage; I carried one of their backpacks for years and got compliments on it every day
• Away — the most inexpensive sturdy rolling pullman cases (or the sturdiest inexpensive ones) I have found; their Aluminum Carry-On is spendy but satisfied my lifelong lust for an unattainably expensive Zero Haliburton
• Sottos — makers of cases with huge wheels that make it easier to roll over surfaces like grass or cobblestones, and to lever-thump up and down stairs
• The Ogio locker bag — cleverly designed to organize gym gear and fit into locker just so — for years I had one which I did not even take back and forth, it just lived in my locker
• Notabag — a simple lightweight bag which folds up small and has a simple, beautiful design which makes it graceful to carry things in one hand, over one shoulder, or as a backpack
• Nanobag — by far the best packable tiny bags I have ever found; these easily pack down to almost nothing but the material is neither flimsy nor weird
• Eagle Creek — my favorite maker of packing cubes; you may prefer to use cubes from the same maker as your bag, but you definitely need packing cubes if you travel

Everyday carry

Keyring

• Craighill — a bunch of spendy, meticulously-designed stuff for a gent’s pockets and desk (their design videos are seductive) and they make several different keyring solutions
• Key Wrangler — a sturdy, unique carabiner keyring which puts keys on a straight bar, which is helpful if one’s keyring has turned into a pocket tool ring; for a compact key solution, check out …
• Keysmart — makers of a line of super-compact key holders; they also make my all-time favorite keyring multitool
• AirNotch Pro — a better tracker than the Apple Airtag for one’s keyring
• RovyVon flashlight — my favorite maker of tiny flashlights, though as Maurice Moves notes, we are embarrassed for choice of little flashlights these days from makers like Fenix and Boruit

Wallet

• Bellroy — the most thoughtfully designed leather wallets I have found; I carry their Hide & Seek bifold when I need more than just the essentials in my …
• Peak Design Mobile Wallet — a super-minimalist wallet which clings to my iPhone via MagSafe and provides a little folding stand
• AirCard — a tracker compatible with Apple FindMy which fits in a wallet card slot
• On-The-Go Notebook — a tiny notebook which fits into a wallet card slot from Rite In The Rain, using their indestructible paper

Pocket pen

• “Bullet” Space Pen — an EDC cliché, but they really do slip into a pocket nicely; I carry one in brass, which has patina’d nicely
• Skillcraft “US Government” ballpoint — IMHO the best cheap pen available, a true classic
• Pilot Vanishing Point — the only good retractable fountain pen, always the second pen I carry when I do because one cannot safely lend fountain pens to strangers
• Big Idea Design — makers of nifty EDC, notably including very nice mini-pens

Pocketknife

I have become a devotée of the pocket boxcutter as the right solution — the replacable blades mean one can always have a nice sharp edge despite abusing that handy blade. I have three options I like:

• Pichi Utility Knife — spendy but worth it; small, elegant, overdesigned, and fidget-tastic
• NexTool Explorer E20 — the one I carry most often; the built in “magazine” of replacement blades deploy easily, and the screwdriver & bottle-opener elements are useful despite catching on the pocket just a bit
• The Gerber Prybrid — the bulkiest, but also the best in the hand for demanding jobs

Sling

• Venture Sling 9L — the Bellroy sling which made me a sling bag user, though I switched to …
• Alpaka Vertex Pouch — a super-organized little sling bag I bring everywhere; more often than not, I have it tucked into a section I have set aside in my backpack for it (where I also keep an obsessively-curated mini toolkit in one of Alpaka’s pouches)
• Wave multitool & Raptor trauma shears from Leatherman — because yes, I am that prepared nerd; if starting over, I’d probably spring for the new Wave Alpha

Electronics

• Peak Design Mobile — a system of elegant, protective phone cases which lock to various stands and implements; if you use one of the newer MagSafe iPhones, these are compatible, which means that you can combine best-of-breed solutions to pair it with the slightly better magnetic card wallet / mini stand from …
• Moft — nifty portable stands for computers, tablets, and phones; I carry one of their Snap Flow notepads stuck to my iPhone with MagSafe

Covid safety

• Breathe99 — a silicone mask with good filter inserts and an integrated cloth cover which keeps one from looking too medical; the one I bring when I know I am going to be popping my mask on and off
• 3M Aura 1870 N95 masks — my favorite disposable masks, with the boxy Korean-style pleats for a comfy good seal, though one must put up with the dorky 3M logo on the white mask
• Nukit Torch UV — spendy portable battery-powered 222nm emitters sufficiently powerful to help protect a few people
• 4Lite Personal HEPA filter — the only personal filter I am confident provides substantial benefit, pointing a stream of filtered air at one’s face; it is a bit too bulky to routinely bring everywhere
• PureZone HEPA filter — the handiest real HEPA filter I know about; I honestly don’t know how beneficial it is, given its small size

Other EDC

• Nerdwax — squirt, microfiber wipse, and more for eyeglasses; the tortilla is my favorite of their many whimsical designs for cleaning cloths
• Reflexology pen — one can get an array of inexpensive blunt-ended sticks for very targeted massage; having one in stainless steel turns out to have an array of random applications
• Nite Ize — makers of a bunch of nifty keyring dinguses; their tiny locking double carabiners turn out to have a million uses
• Havhaf hair ties — not just the best hair ties I have found, these look nice waiting for duty on a wrist, and turn out to have occasional random applications

Toys

• The Kids Should See This Gift Guide — a curated list of cool toys for kids of all ages
• Norman & Jules — toys for actual children with a Montessori sensibility which I find seductive
• Art Of Play — unreasonably beautiful puzzles, games, and toys for grownups
• Unemployed Philosophers’ Guild — a range of nifty/cute/clever tchotchkes for nerds, if you need something like a Nicola Tesla action figure
• aroundsquare — simple, beautiful hand fidget stuff
• Areaware — beautiful toys suited for adults and kids, like wooden Blockitecture blocks, as well as playful home & office stuff

Nerd-ish art

• Made With Molecules — gorgeous, simple jewelry and tchotckes depicting organic molecules
• Bathsheba Grossman — elaborate little sculptures of mathematical forms
• Neurons & Nebulas — surprisingly nifty felt goodies
• Chop Shop — whimsey like a “MAKE THE LOGO SMALLER” T-shirt, and cool planet blocks like toddlers’ alphabet blocks
• Deux Écureuils Céramique — handmade ceramics with cute-and-witty designs
• Voidmerch & Boredwalk — T-shirts and such with geeky/gothy words on them which are actually witty, including my Hallowe’en costume
• 2046 Print Shop — T-shirts with crisp, almost-abstract science themes
• Plotterpen — abstract art created with a mechanical plotter
• CMY Cube — if you’re a color theory nerd, you probably already know about this thing; I have one and can report that it is delightful

Clothing

• Outlier — spendy-but-worth-it technical clothing in a mix of plain and eccentric designs
• American Giant — exceptionally well-made cotton basic clothes for men, including “the greatest hoodie ever made”
• Mack Weldon — more cotton basics; my enthusiasm for their One Mile Slipper proves that I am a middle-aged guy
• Quince — a big catalogue which also includes housewares; after a lot of experimentation, they have become my favorite maker of merino wool basics
• Hollow Socks — made from Alpaca fiber, I like ’em better than wool for the stuff one asks wool socks to do
• Cleverhood — nifty rain ponchos designed for bicyclists
• Woobie Coats — simple, very warm hooded coats cunningly designed to take advantage of existing mil-spec blanket material; inexpensive enough that you can buy them in bulk to give to your whole camping crew, or to houseless strangers
• Gustin — clothes “like they do not make any more”, in denim and other interesting fabrics; they keep expenses relatively low by pre-selling short runs, so their mailing list offers fresh temptations on the regular
• Vestige — T-shirts with abstract graphics that are just really nice
• Winkworth Ladies’ Goods — a Brooklyn designer of my acquaintance whose cozy / classy / sexy work I admire (and I gotta say that the models on their Instagram are all dreamy)
• Katherinesummer — nifty knitwear
• Camouflage wizard hats — useless but delightful

Grooming

• Hairstory — New Wash is a no-shampoo shampoo which will change the chemistry of your scalp; they also have other cool haircare stuff, including a really nice scalp brush
• Acne.org — a line of good, simple skincare products which are great even if you don’t have acne; I cannot describe what AHA+ does but it is great for your skin
• The Ordinary: Peeling Solution — if, like me, you sometimes feel tempted to take turpentine to your oily skin, this is the stuff you want
• The Tangle Teezer — does one thing very well; my hair will start to tangle in five minutes if I just stand still and will quickly turn to ’locs if I let it, but this magic device sets it right in just a few swipes
• Gilette Mach3 razors — in my experience, categorically better than any other disposable solution, but …
• Henson Shaving — after giving up on safety razors as hard on my skin while not shaving close enough, these beautiful precision-machined safety razors brought me back; in the long run, one saves money on the blades
• Edjy — a unique fingernail-cutter which produces a clean edge
• Glass nail files — better than emery boards for smoothing out that rough edge; the link points to a (relatively) sturdy version a friend recommeds
• Seki Ear Hair Trimmer — tweezers with a little coil between the gripping ends that make it easier to pluck hairs wherever they are causing trouble
• Beautiful Freak Cosmetics — gorgeous handmade bath & body products with a goth-y sensibility
• Mando Body Care — the best deodrant I have found

Housewares

• TubShroom — bath and sink filters which catch gunk without clogging
• Kaufmann Mercantile — a range of well-made housewares and “accessories” and whatnot
• Ikea 365+ food containers — one can mix-and-match nesting containers made of cheap plastic, strong glass, or stainless steel with lids made of bamboo, latching plastic, or silicone; containers have different heights but only a few different footprints, so there is no heartache matching lids to containers
• Ikea Kuggis boxes — simple storage boxes in an array of colors & sizes which stack nicely (their Uppdatera bins also stack neatly onto them)
• Skura — really nice kitchen sponges and related cleaning stuff
• Ovalware’s cold brew coffee maker is just a pleasing, solid bit of kit
• Purist Collective — nifty insulated cups & bottles for home or on the go
• Mighty Mug — the insulated travel cup I use at my work desk; it has clever suction device which keeps it from spilling when set on a smooth surface
• Gigogne Tumbler — stackable glass tumblers from French makers of classic nearly-indestructible glassware
• Onsen — waffle-style towels which sucked me in to a Kickstarter; they are really nice
• The Swag — a cotton bag which one dampens and uses to keep vegetables fresh in the fridge; surprisingly, it works
• WeatherPro storage bins — they are inexpensive, solid-enough, stackable, and the lids clip on almost-watertight

Miscellaneous consumables

• Slate Milk — shelf-stable lactose-free not-too-sweet quality chocolate milk in a can; these make such a great afternoon treat that I have a subscription
• Nickel Dime Cocktail Syrups & Portland Syrups — a treat I have taken to now that I have slowed down enough that I am enjoying soda concoctions more often than actual cocktails
• U-Haul paper packing tape — so much better than all other box tape that it is worth going out of your way; it sticks nicely to cardboard but does not tend to get stuck to other stuff, tears easily by hand, and you can write on it
• Hydro Seal Band-Aids & Tegaderm Dressings — are two different styles of hydrocolloid bandages which are flexible, comfortable, waterproof, and stay on for several days; I like to trim the edges as they progressively pull away so that by the time the whole thing finally drops off, minor wounds have usually completely healed
• Spenco’s moist burn pads — an essential adjunct to those bandages; they belong in every first aid kid because for a burn there is no substitute
• Biltong — it’s like jerky, but better; expensive, but worth it

Everything else

• Graf Lantz — a bunch of cool things made of wool felt
• Garrett Wade — such beautiful tools that their gardening implements tempt me to take up gardening
• Oxford Pennant — camp flags that are just cool
• Bibliotheca — an exceptionally handsome edition of the Bible, designed for one to enjoy reading; it uses an idiosyncratic Protestant translation which attempts to marry formal literalism with contemporary language
• Manta — by far the best sleep blindfolds; their Bluetooth sound mask is the most comfortable way to have personal sleep sound
• Upcart — a sturdy little folding dolly with a wacky triangular wheel design which enables one to use it to carry things up and down stairs
• PowerTye net — a net made of bungee cord with hooks designed to gather the net into shape
• Conceirge bell — you can buy one of these cheap and ding it any time you want
• Guasha massage wand — a useful massage tool which turns out to occasionally have other applications because it is a satisfying lump of stainless steel

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Of course the real reason I made this list is so I have a place to tuck cool stuff I find so I can go shopping for toys later. Or if you want to get me a present ….

Terror

To begin with, I should note that during the events that I am about to describe, no bloggers were harmed in any way.

Yesterday I set out to ride my motorbike, Betty, up from San Diego to Oakland. I need to move her, and it's a PITA to drain her fluids to truck her up, so as I have the time my plan was to take Highway 1 up the coast and enjoy the trip. Beautiful vistas, cheap motels, and the open road, here I come.

Instead, I had the most terrifying experience of my life.

I packed clothes and sundries for the ride in my big messenger backpack, a suit for job interviews into my garment roll, and a few other things I'd need only when I arrived in the Bay Area into my shoulder bag. Geared up for the ride, with the backpack on, I locked the shoulder bag inside Betty's side case and bungee'd the garment roll onto my back seat as a driver waited impatiently for my parking spot.

I think the waiting driver may have inspired some unwise haste on my part.

Ten minutes later I'm zipping up Highway 805 at a cool 70 miles an hour when there's a horrible chunk noise from the back end of my bike, and I'm skidding. I wasn't sure what had happened at the time, but I now know that the rear wheel had locked up completely. This is every bit as bad a situation as it sounds.

Let us now praise the Motorcycle Safety Foundation and their excellent RiderCourse, which I took ten years ago. They teach a number of safety skills, not least how to handle a rear wheel skid. (Don't panic, don't let up the rear brake, don't try to steer, and don't try to drive out of it, just let yourself come to a stop.) You actually practice doing rear-wheel skids during the class.

At fifteen miles an hour.

As I skidded from 70 to 0 the reflexes they taught me kicked in and I kept her upright. I even managed to drift myself onto the dotted line between the ^#2 and ^#3 lanes so that I wasn't in the direct path of traffic.

Instead, I had two lanes of traffic to either side of me. I tried rocking the bike back and forth a bit, but that rear wheel was locked tight. I couldn't get her into neutral, and her engine had gone dead. The shoulders looked very, very far away.

I did have my phone with me, so I rang 911 and had a nice chat with the Highway Patrol dispatcher. She didn't quite seem to grok how I could be literally in the middle of the freeway, or why this would inspire me to ask her to speak a little louder, but she did tell me that a tow truck and a cop were on their way. She also helpfully advised me that my first concern at this time should be my own safety.

Good point; I resolved to get right on that project, as soon as I could think of something I could do about it. The skid had been the scariest thing that had ever happened to me, by far, but I had demoted it to the ^#2 position on the list by the time the dispatcher gave me that advice. Cars were zipping past a few inches to either side of me. I switched on hazard lighs and put my helmet back on; every little bit helps.

Fortunately, a passing motorist finally took pity on my plight and stopped behind me in one lane. With his assistance, I managed to walk my (very heavy!) girl over to the center divider. In the process, I solved the mystery of what had happened. My garment bag had somehow escaped its position on my back seat and taken residence in my rear wheel well. I had a suit, a couple of dress shirts, and a few of my favourite neckties wedged firmly between Betty's engine and rear wheel. It was looking like I might have to actually get the wheel removed to get them out.

My fault. $#*+!!

I had time to create some inventive new curses before the tow guy showed up with a big flatbed truck. He tilted the flatbed back so it lay with one edge against the tarmac and—being more enthusiastic and strong than I am—he proposed brute-forcing Betty's rear wheel an inch above the ground and pushing her up onto the flatbed. This worked, and he had me sitting on the bike to keep it upright when, unannounced, he pushed the button to bring the flatbed back to horizontal. This was a very peculiar sensation. Or maybe I was experiencing things particularly vividly at that point, for some reason.

By this time the CHP officer had finally showed. He asked me if I wanted to file a report. Uh, no thank you?

I climbed into the cab and the tow guy asked me where we were going. I decided on just going back to my apartment, where I could call for a mechanic to haul away my dead bike ... and shower off my adrenalin sweat.

We get to my place and repeat the flatbed tilt a second time. I rode my bike backward, downhill, with the locked rear wheel, inching down using the front brake and the tips of my toes. I think this must have been kind of scary, but by this time that was small potatoes.

Somehow this process dislodged my bag. My rear wheel turned again. The tow driver suggested that I should try to start my bike, but I was sure that this adventure must have fubar'd the engine.

I was wrong. Betty runs like a watch. The tow driver obviously thought I was nuts when I kissed her. I had a word with my mechanic, who assured me that she ought to be just fine, save for a bald spot on her rear tire. I can still ride her, but since I'm still planning on a five hundred mile ride, I'll have that tire replaced next week.

Oh, and though my garment bag is hors d'combat, my suit and shirts survived. Well, they could use a little pressing. Unbelievable.

Lessons learned:

• Bikers:
  • Secure your gear carefully.
  • Take the MSF class, it could save your life.
• It turns out I'm cool under fire.
• I have mad biker skillz.
• I see why some people are addicted to adrenalin-inspiring danger.
• I am not one of those people.
• I thought that after my parked car was wrecked by a drunkard and I was laid off from my job that the city of San Diego was spitting me out, but it seems that she ain't quite done with me yet.