{"id":35606,"date":"2020-03-18T09:00:09","date_gmt":"2020-03-18T16:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=35606"},"modified":"2020-03-13T14:56:41","modified_gmt":"2020-03-13T21:56:41","slug":"whats-in-my-bag-sean-michael-ragan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/whats-in-my-bag-sean-michael-ragan\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s in my bag? \u2014 Sean Michael Ragan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up here<\/i><\/a>\u00a0to get\u00a0What\u2019s in my bag?\u00a0a week early in your inbox.<\/i><\/p>\n

Sean Michael Ragan<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0is an author, an entrepreneur, and a former editor of MAKE Magazine. His books include The Total Inventor\u2019s Manual, How to Use a Breadboard, and the forthcoming Breadboard \u2018Bots. When he\u2019s not out in the shop, Sean moonlights as co-host of the\u00a0Cool Tools YouTube channel<\/a>. You can find him on Instagram\u00a0@seanmragan<\/a>, Twitter\u00a0@seanragan<\/a>, and Facebook\u00a0@seanmichaelragan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

About the bag<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m still using the same JanSport Right Pack backpack<\/a> I bought 20 years ago at the college campus bookstore! Then as now, JanSport bags come with a lifetime warranty and I\u2019ve sent this one back to the factory twice now to have busted zippers repaired. Only thing I\u2019d do differently is buy black instead of tan, so as to not show so much dirt!<\/p>\n

What’s inside the bag<\/strong><\/p>\n

Outlander Ultralight Packable Backpack<\/a> ($18-$34)<\/strong>
\nProbably the handiest thing I keep in my bag is \u2026 another bag! The Outlander stores inside-out in its own sewn-in zippered stuff pouch so it takes up as little space as possible when you don\u2019t need it. And when you do, it unfolds into a full-size backpack that\u2019s waterproof, lightweight, and super tough. I\u2019ve had mine for four years, almost half of which time I used it as my regular-duty backpack. It\u2019s great for those inevitable situations when I have to carry more stuff on the way out than I did on the way in.<\/p>\n

iFixit Jimmy Opening Tool<\/a> ($8)<\/strong>
\nOne of the many ways consumer electronics have become less repair-friendly in my lifetime has been the shift away from case screws toward hairline flexural snaps that have to be prised open. And if you want to have any hope of closing the case up again afterwards, a flat-blade screwdriver is the wrong tool for this job. The \u201cJimmy\u201d is a piece of thin spring steel with dull edges (so it doesn\u2019t cut or scratch stuff) and polished faces (that slide easily into narrow openings) mounted in a comfy elastomer handle that makes it easy to maneuver.<\/p>\n

Pak-Lite 9V LED Flashlight<\/a> ($24)<\/strong>
\nThe classic US-made clip-on 9V flashlight. Unlike the Chinese knock-offs, the Pak-Lite\u2019s electronics are potted in clear epoxy, so it\u2019s waterproof even to the point of full immersion. The one I carry has a glow in the dark case, which is actually self-energizing. So even if it\u2019s been out of the sun all day, once you manage to find it and turn it on, the glow-in-the-dark plastic will charge up just from the light of the LEDs themselves and will continue to glow for several minutes after you shut it off.<\/p>\n

Nitecore F2 USB Battery Charger \/ Power Bank<\/a> ($19)<\/strong>
\nI keep at least one charged USB power bank around all the time in case my phone or tablet runs out of juice, and though there are lots of options in this space, I really like the Nitecore F2, because it\u2019s inexpensive, lightweight, and uses removable 18650 lithium-ion rechargeable cells. So you can use it as a flashlight battery charger or a power bank, and unlike sealed power banks, the cells are easily replaced when they start to short-cycle. Multiple F2s can be daisy-chained or even connected in a circle for charging (if you\u2019re short on power outlets) or for discharging (if you need more amp-hours than you can get out of one unit).<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What’s in my bag? issue #41<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13684,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[2303],"tags":[1553],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35606"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13684"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35608,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35606\/revisions\/35608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}