PAT'S ARCHIVE

I’ve spent way too long stressing about what my first real post on my site should be. I’ve decided to make a “what’s in my bag” post as a sort of introduction to who I am. Plus, it gives me a chance to write mini product reviews of a bunch of my things. What people carry can say a lot about them and I personally love checking out subreddits like r/whatsinmybag or r/techedc. I’ll admit, I was excited to make my own little grid layout of my stuff.

I don’t leave the house with this bag often. But if for instance, my wife and I decide to go to the library or a coffee shop to get some work done, this is what I bring. Mostly though, I just like moving the bag from room to room in the house depending on whether I wanna do stuff in the office, on the dining room table or even on the couch. It’s just nice to have all of my stuff in the same bag like a mobile office.



Let’s get into the bag itself, the Bellroy Laneway Crescent Bag 12L. I was gifted this by my in-laws last Christmas and I absolutely love the look of this bag. The olive green and burgundy interior looks so snazzy. This is my first Bellroy product and I really like their design language.



My main computer is a desktop PC in our office, but if I want to be more mobile, I use my M2 Macbook Air, decked out with stickers. I have a 1 Terabyte SSD I keep all my files on so I can easily move them between both computers. And of course, the charger for the laptop.



Next up is a variety of notebooks, each with my favorite pen, a Sharpie S-gel attached. I know it looks crazy to have so many notebooks, but each serves a different purpose.

I try my best to journal often. I use my journal more as a daily log of important events or just daily happenings in an effort to document my life. I swear, my memory of recent events is so much better since I started doing this.

The middle notebook is a more a scratch pad for all sorts of random, temporary notes.

On the right, I use a Kokuyo Campus A5 loose leaf binder as my sorta “home admin” notebook. Here I keep more permanent things like To-Do lists, household chores and timelines and various home projects.



In addition, I also keep a sketchbook and a little bag with various art supplies. I usually just stick to pen and pencil for sketching out a quick project idea or just doing cartoony doodles.



Finally here’s all my gadgets and fun stuff! I’m making an effort to use my phone and be online in general way less. One way I like to do that is to use dedicated devices that “decentralize” my smartphone.

My e-reader is getting the most love lately. It’s the Kobo Clara Colour. I still love physical books and we have quite a huge collection of them, but having a bunch of books loaded on one device is just so convenient. Plus I can download books from our local library on it. I’ve been reading a bunch of classic literature on this thing (downloaded through Project Gutenberg) as well as on-and-off-again making my way through the quite hefty Alexander Hamilton biography.

Yes, that’s a book of crossword puzzles. I know it sounds like such an old man activity, but don’t underestimate them! If you want to escape the brain-rot of short-form internet content, crosswords are an easy form of entertainment that make you actually use your brain.

My latest gadget is a modern-day MP3 player. Now they call them DAPs for “digital audio players.” I have a Surfans F20 Pro and I’m using wired Apple headphones just like the old days! Although, they can connect to bluetooth, I just like the nostalgia. I really want to wean myself off of Spotify so I can have one less subscription in my life. It’s honestly been very satisfying curating my own personal collection of music. I can also listen to podcasts on it since it runs Android. It’s not the beeest option out there… it’s a bit clunky and has crashed a few times on me but it works just fine for what I need.

My two digital cameras are a Kodak PixPro C1 and a Kodak Charmera. Yes, it’s still way more convenient to take pictures with my phone and they’ll be very high quality, but I just miss the simplicity of a point and shoot camera that doesn’t connect to the internet. I like backing up my pictures through an SD card instead of relying on “the cloud.”

The PixPro takes surprisingly good photos for the price, with 2 caveats. It can struggle taking pictures in low light, and there’s no stabilization, meaning that for close-ups in particular, you really need to hold still when taking a picture, otherwise it comes out very blurry. It also shoots video that looks great (again, as long as the lighting is decent.)

The Charmera might be the most fun camera to use! The pictures aren’t winning any awards but it’s impressive how good they are considering what a tiny camera it is! And the fact that it fits on a keychain makes it incredibly easy to take with you. If we’re going on a trip and wanna take pictures, either of these cameras are fun to take with us and snap some pics the old fashion way.

Lastly, I have some JBL bluetooth earbuds, a pair of Loop earplugs, and a power bank to charge all the electronics.



And here’s the bag all packed out! I could probably stand to downsize it a little, as it becomes quite bulky. But it’s the laptop that adds the most weight overall. So if I don’t need it when going out, I’ll leave it behind.

But that’s all my stuff! Thanks for reading!