{"id":35823,"date":"2020-04-22T09:00:21","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T16:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=35823"},"modified":"2020-04-13T12:09:06","modified_gmt":"2020-04-13T19:09:06","slug":"whats-in-my-bag-rob-walker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/whats-in-my-bag-rob-walker\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s in my bag? \u2014 Rob Walker"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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Rob Walker<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0is a senior writer and columnist for\u00a0Marker<\/a>, a new business publication from Medium.\u00a0A longtime contributor to The New York Times and many other publications, he is the author most recently of\u00a0The Art of Noticing, 131 Ways to Spark Creativity, Find Inspiration and Discover Joy in the Everyday<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0He\u2019s on the faculty of the Products of Design graduate program at the School of Visual Arts . You can find him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Medium<\/a>\u00a0at @notrobwalker.\u00a0Sign up for his Art of Noticing newsletter<\/a>\u00a0where he shares news, tips and inspiration for building your attention muscles.<\/p>\n

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About the bag<\/strong>
\nI bought this bag online at least 10 or 12 years ago. It was exactly what I\u2019d been seeking in a casual shoulder bag \u2013 light and slim. I work at home (in New Orleans now, in Savannah when I bought the bag) and I rarely have any need to haul around a laptop or other heavier gear as I did in earlier years when I lived in New York (and carried a bigger bag). This one neatly accommodate an iPad with keyboard add-on, which is my preferred tech parameter when traveling. I think it cost me maybe $60 at the time, and I remember it was described as being Czech military surplus \u2013 deadstock, I assume. Somehow\u00a0the identical bag<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0is still available to this day. The Czech military must have been\u00a0really<\/em>\u00a0optimistic when setting the production run! Anyway, to my considerable surprise, this bag has sparked more compliments and comments than any other object I have ever owned in my life. But that\u2019s not why I like it. I still use it because it has lived up to my functional wishes, and has proven quite sturdy. I\u2019d be lost without it!<\/p>\n

What’s inside the bag<\/strong>
\nBienfang NoteSketch Book<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0($6-$10)<\/strong>
\nThis has been my preferred notebook brand since college. I\u2019m not a serious journal\/notebook person, but I do really like to have somewhere to write things down with a pen \u2013 whether it\u2019s a stray observation or a grocery list. I like that these notebooks have pages that are half-ruled, and half-blank. I often add stickers, or tape in security badges, to give them a vaguely diaristic feel. There are no real rules to my notebook, it\u2019s a mix of the important, the frivolous, the ephemeral. Anyway I never take a trip without my current notebook.<\/p>\n

Samsung Level Noise-Canceling Earbuds<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0($18)<\/strong>
\nMostly I carry this bag when I\u2019m traveling, and one of my top priorities when I\u2019m on a plane is having the option to block out the sounds of other travelers as much as possible. For a long time I carried Bose headphones, but they just took up too much space. So I decided to try earbuds. I did a bunch of research, and to be honest Level was not the top choice \u2013 it was the \u201caffordable alternative,\u201d and at the time I just didn\u2019t feel like splurging. But I\u2019ve been happy with these. In my experience, even terrific over-ear headphones (like Bose\u2019s) won\u2019t save you from a screaming infant. But these work well enough to take the edge off distracting chatter. I only use them on airplanes, but leave them in my bag all the time, just so I\u2019m sure I won\u2019t forget to pack them.<\/p>\n

Foldable toothbrush<\/a> ($5)<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m paranoid about having some remnant of lunch stuck in my teeth all afternoon. I bought several of these cheap-o foldable toothbrushes at some point, and always have one in my bag. Even so, I know I sometimes forget to use it, and probably do end up with some remnant of lunch stuck in my teeth all afternoon.<\/p>\n

Bump USB Charger<\/strong><\/a>
\nLike everybody else I\u2019m constantly worried about this or that device running out of power. This particular charger came across my radar when I was reporting a story, it was designed by Karim Rashid, and one of the attractions was that it\u2019s rounded rather than sharp-edged like most chargers. So it\u2019s kind of friendlier. That sounds absurd, but I actually like it! It plugs directly into an electrical socket for re-charging, but holds its charge for a pretty long time. So apart from being kind of a fun design, it\u2019s served me very well. However, it appears that it was not successful? I have no idea if you can buy one any more. I still like mine!<\/p>\n

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

What’s in my bag? issue #46<\/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\/35823"}],"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=35823"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35877,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35823\/revisions\/35877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}