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What Do You Really Need To Carry Every Day?

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Recently, I’ve gotten into thinking about my EDC (every day carry). And I’ve been setting it up so that everything I could conceivably need and possibly carry in a reasonable weight is on me at all times. Since it doesn’t really bother me to have a backpack, and the only real limitation is that some stores ask you to remove it to prevent shoplifting (which I think is silly, really. It just makes me concerned for my bag, and maybe slightly less prone to shop with you.) I do have everything in a backpack. And now I carry a lot of stuff.

In theory, my system is modular, moving up from pockets to fanny pack (bumbag) then satchel (which I hardly use any more) and finally to backpack. But in practice I find myself just carrying the backpack everywhere. I don’t like going without things, and since in my city it’s illegal to use disposable bags at stores, it’s handy to have around so that I don’t continually have to either carry around a cloth bag and look like a loser walking back to my apartment, or buy a “reusable” plastic or paper bag for a dime every time I go shopping. That should also answer the question of whether or not I have the bag full. I don’t, in order to put things in it when needed. And if I filled it, I would look very out of place (I say that like I don’t already). The bag would be about a “me and a half” wide, in addition to me, which is far too big to be convenient.

But that really does beg the question: do I need my backpack at all? The simple answer is no. Most people get by with a phone, wallet, keys, and maybe a pen and stylus. Some people also have iPads (tablets) and laptops, but I’m guessing those people don’t carry those around all the time. My first-aid kit, fire-starting methods (lighter, matches, flint and steel), poncho, flashlight, notebooks (I am a writer and artist, after all) and other things aren’t really necessary for day-to-day life. But they might come in quite handy at some point, and indeed when I have been out I have used these things, although I’ve used them more for the needs of other people as I am more prepared for what I’m going to be doing. Still, the items are useful.

But how useful does an item need to be to have you carry it every day? Most people could stick a multi-tool on their keys (I have one) and either have that be enough for every task they face, or never even use it. And it would just sit there taking up space and having taken $20 out of their wallet.

Obviously my first-aid kit is impractical, but it could save a life, so I keep carrying it. But for most (social) people it would be far too much of a hassle to keep anywhere but their car. (Side note: you should absolutely invest in a decent first-aid kit to go in your car. Absolutely everyone should have one, seriously, that is something I truly believe should be ubiquitous). I carry it around really because most people don’t. And if something bad does happen, I might not be the best trained to deal with it, but I can at least provide equipment and not be completely useless.

Most of the other items I could do without. In fact I could probably just tailor my items to match up with the groups I’m around most often (for instance, if I’m around a smoker a lot it’s less likely I would need a lighter) and compensate for what they lack. Together, in that scenario, we’d all make one prepared person. But really, I’m with enough different groups of people, and sometimes I go for stretches without really interacting with a group of friends, so I carry all of the things that might be useful to me in any scenario. That is where my level of carry ends, though. If it would only be useful to someone else, and not to me, I don’t carry it. Or, if it’s far too impractical to carry. My bag is a little less than 20 pounds (estimation: it varies) and I wouldn’t want to carry more than that for any significant amount of time.

So do I really need to carry it? No, I really don’t need to carry much. That list I made earlier of what most people carry was fine with me for years, and I had even less in school (I only had a pen and my keys in my pocket then). It’s very easy to get by with that. And the amount of things needed to excel is far too much for most people. I carry around a lot because I like to be prepared. I don’t want to get caught up later because I didn’t take time at the start. And I understand that won’t work for most people. What do you really need to carry every day? Nothing. A phone and a credit card will do almost everything you’d ever need now. But really you don’t “need” to carry anything. In the end, what you choose to carry is based on what you think is the best balance of what you might need, and the lightest load so you don’t get bogged down. And I might go a bit overboard, but I don’t sink.

Collecting Things that Have a Story

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When you collect as many things as I do, you inevitably run into the side of at least one hobby where everyone values the things that are being collected much more than you do. And that isn’t a problem, and this won’t be about that being a problem. These people tend to want things to be pristine, some of them in the package, some of them out. For fountain pens and knives, they’re the people who don’t want anything with an engraving.  For video games and toys, they’re the people that want the item in box, in shrink wrap. And for various other hobbies that I may or may not be involved in, there are different things that are important to the collectors.

Now, obviously I don’t agree with that. I have a video (but I haven’t posted it anywhere) of me opening a brand new Atari 2600 game in the late 2000’s. That would give some people a heart attack. But I just feel that if it’s a video game console or a toy, it was meant to be played with, and if it’s a fountain pen, or knife, or anything else it was meant to be used.

I know I’m not that way with everything. Older notebooks and art supplies I have a hard time using sometimes, because I feel like using them destroys them in a way, and that at least one specimen should be preserved. This applies more to something like a unique pencil and less to something like old paint that just seems wasted if it isn’t used.

It’s hard to find the balance of what to preserve and what to use, especially if you do believe that vintage items were meant to be used. My heart does sink every time I see someone who has an older item and is using it because it’s “cool” to do so and is in the process destroying it. They are well within their rights to do so, but I think that they should be putting at least a little more care into it.

I’m well aware that nothing will last forever, but I do want as many examples as possible of anything to last for as long as possible. That is part of why I invest so much time and money into my collections. I want to see them last, I like them a lot, and keeping them nice is just as important to me as the collection itself.

But what does that say about personal engravings in pens, knives, lighters, jewelry, and tools? Are they ruined even before the collector sees them? I don’t think so. While it is true that I tend to buy items without engravings or personalization, this has more to do with either them being less recognizable (No one would look at a painted Xbox and think it was an Xbox at first glance, and they might think I’m weird for painting one afterwards) or because people would think I stole things. “Hey, why are you using Edward Clavares’ pen?” Not that many people even really look at the engraving, but it could be a concern.

But as for items I won’t carry around: that older knife or fountain pen that should’ve been several hundred dollars that I got for free (that really happened), I like the wear and personalizations. It gives the items a sense of history. It’s even better when I know part of the story. I have a multi-tool with my dad’s name on it, a knife with my brother’s, and I had a notebook with my grandfather’s, but I gave that back to my mother. For all of those items I know part of the story, maybe very little, and I can only imagine the parts before, but having that realistic grounding is nice. I really do love the engravings on such items.

I also go to garage sales and charity shops a lot. Inside there are all sorts of items which have all sorts of different possible stories associated with them. Especially handmade items, which I always feel bad passing up. I feel like I’m leaving a part of history behind, even if it is poorly constructed history.

That’s why it’s nice to have several pieces in a collection that are personalized to some extent. I feel like I’m both saving history and getting a well-constructed product. Though I won’t seek out a product that has been personalized, having a few shows that these items were used by actual people, not just some other collector who took perfect care of them. And there is something collectable about a thing that has a person’s name on it, especially if it’s an uncommon name. It might be the only one like it in the world.

Really though, I’m just not snobby either way. I know there are some people who would never collect a personalized or even a used item, and there are some people who would only collect those items. And I understand the urge to do both, so I try to meet somewhere in the middle. I like to keep my mind open, and I haven’t yet gotten to the point in my collecting where I only collect a thing here and there that I’m really searching for. I may never get to that point. If you have exactly what you want to collect figured out, I’m glad, and your life is probably a lot more organized than mine. We all see value in different things in any given hobby. Like I’ve said previously, I’m not into buying anything very expensive. And as personalized items usually go for less on the second-hand market, the fact that I like them is just a bonus.

If you asked me why I collect what I do, I’d probably tell you I like to collect things that interest me, and stories interest me. Whether it’s some fictional universe the product is based on, or my personal experiences, or the crazy collection of a guy I met a few times who was a great person and really into all of this stuff, or just some letters on the side of a pen that I can make up a journey around, I like collecting for the story.

To Review or Not to Review

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My original title for this was something along the lines of why I think reviewing something that has already been reviewed is a pointless endeavor. Then, of course, I remembered that I review quite a lot of things that have already been reviewed. I have an entire blog that is designated almost solely to that purpose, and if someone hasn’t reviewed the art supplies I have reviewed there, I would be very surprised.

That being said, in my video reviews I try to do things that are a bit more obscure. Perhaps that’s because I personally enjoy watching video reviews as a form of entertainment, and things that are much more obscure make for a better viewing experience as opposed to a product that has been reviewed by a ton of people.

When I have just “joined” a hobby (in quotes because I don’t go on forums and post, or sign up for related memberships, or anything) I quite enjoy finding all of the reviews of every product that I can, no matter how common they are. Eventually, though, I find myself not searching for those reviews anymore, for obvious reasons. Now, if someone I enjoy watching has a video on something I’ve seen before, I’ll likely watch it just to see their take, but that would be after I’ve watched many other videos of theirs.

Translating this to my reviews, I know that very few people are going to come to my youtube channel or my website looking for a review on something that has been looked at by tens (possibly hundreds, but unlikely) of other people. So I make the type of video that I would watch if I were more into the hobby and looking for something more obscure, just for entertainment purposes.

That doesn’t mean that I won’t review something that has been looked at before, possibly by quite a few people, but it will be lower on my priority list than my looking at some more obscure items.

In written reviews, my opinions vary a bit. I feel that they are absorbed by fewer people for pleasure and more by people actually looking to buy the product in question. Therefore, I think that a different opinion is a good one, and I have no “problems” reviewing an item that has been reviewed many times before. Even then some of the items I review are so common that most people haven’t thought to review them.

So I think my original idea was problematic. I have no trouble reviewing things that have already been reviewed, but I would rather review other things. When it comes to the question of to review or not to review, I will always prefer the review option if I think there will be some substance to it (it’s hard to review a paperclip), and I would love to do a review of everything in the world. I just want to look at the less common things first.

Why Do They Rename Content After Its Release?

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Renaming videos and articles after their release seems a very recent phenomenon. I go to a website, or see a new video on youtube that’s news-related, read the headline, read the article or watch the video, then leave and do something else. And when I return to the website to check something else, I discover the title to the thing I’ve already seen has changed.

I’m never quite sure why the change has occurred, but I do know that it is quite inconvenient for me when I think I might be looking at something new when I definitely am not.

I guess I know why they’re doing it. In theory it would be because of a mistake, or improper wording. If they had a title that didn’t reflect what the article or video was about, I would understand the need to change it. And, of course, typos need to be corrected.

But in some cases, more recently, I’ve been seeing perfectly accurate titles being replaced with equally accurate ones, less accurate ones, and sometimes even irrelevant ones. Perfectly good titles are exchanged for ones that will get more views, or play in with some recent phenomenon (that will get more views). And this is something that really disappoints me. I want the places where I go for entertainment to at least keep their original titles (save for fixing typos) the vast majority of the time. When a much-more-appropriate title appears, I am absolutely fine with the previous one being replaced, but if one is replaced on a weekly basis I start to have problems.

Sometimes I don’t name things until I’m done working on them, but often times I have a finished title halfway through production, and not having one, or at least a good idea of one, by the end of the process seems like a large oversight. If you don’t like the title enough that you’d consider changing it later, think for a longer time about it now.

And when news sources do this I feel especially wronged (not in a severe sense, because this is just online, but you get my point, I hope). Many times it’s obviously changed to get more views. Now I’m fine with things being named to get views, but if I have to deal with two click-baity titles on the same piece of material in the same day, I start to not want to view that content. Sometimes there are even more title changes, which may speak to a strange attention disorder and want of more recognition that may be inside the mind of the poster.

In short, I don’t like it! It is passable sometimes, but I feel that it is wrong to an audience to rename multiple times what you have put up for viewing. In my opinion, it attempts to get more views dishonestly and corrects mistakes very rarely. Although I’m not a fan, it still isn’t nearly as bad as the Discovery Channel airing that mermaid “documentary”, though.

Gender Based Notebooks?

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I’m an avid notebook user. I love all types of notebooks, though I’ll admit I’m partial to blank paper, and hardbacked, black books. I’ve used some of the most well-known and best books in the medium-price range. But I’ll still try most anything out. I have several notebooks that are bound flimsily, have paper that tears or bleeds through, and other problems. Most people don’t notice those, but they do notice when I have a pink notebook. People think that me, as a man, wouldn’t like to carry a pink or purple book. I’d say there are many problems that make notebooks unusable long before the color of the cover comes into consideration, even if pink isn’t my first choice.

Now this might be something that one simply has to take into consideration when buying notebooks. After all, most stationery stores that aren’t for office supplies and therefore have a very neutral atmosphere, are geared toward women. At least, that’s the way it seems. With their natural to pastel colors, slightly awkward layout, and all-female staff, they make me feel slightly nervous when walking in. It’s like I’m not the one that’s supposed to be there. Not that I’m really comfortable in most store scenarios, but at least I’m expected.

Why is that, though? Paper products, while not directly advertised toward women, are much more “feminine” in style, or neutral (if the choice must be made). Maybe that’s because the only manly notebook is black. I’d laugh at a gunmetal or camo pattern, though there are some less-pink/bright colors of notebooks that I’d like to buy. And that’s the thing, really, for me. I don’t mind many notebooks being more female-oriented, but what I don’t want is one that really sticks out. I don’t mind using a pink or lime notebook, but I’d rather one that was mahogany, or a pear green, or even a dull pink instead of a bright one.
All of the colors just look synthetic and stick out to me. And people notice them and think they’re strange. Did I pick up my girlfriend’s notebook? No, who would ever accidentally do that, who has a notebook that isn’t personal enough that it can be loaned out, even a school one? And people look at me funny for something that is considered “different” for me to do.

The color of the notebook in no way affects the writing experience to be contained within, but I still wish there were some more easily obtainable, subdued colors.

I guess, though, that’s more because I want to blend in, to hide in the crowd and not stick out. I don’t want people picking me out of a crowd because of my notebook’s color, and even less if they think negatively about it. I’ll still use them to try them out, but I always have old standbys for serious use.

That’s just me, I guess. Perhaps many people do want to stand out with the color of their notebooks, but having a notebook now almost seems to make you stand out enough.
My question, though, would be: are notebooks more female items in popular culture? Do manufacturers have a more female audience in mind when creating new products? I’m fine with there being many girl-oriented books, and even some manufacturers. I just wish there were more making plain type books, that are easier to… conceal, I guess. I want more notebooks in general, not more that are just geared toward me or any other specific group.

I can’t say for sure one way or the other, but I know very few men who use anything beyond a small pocket notebook, while many of the women I know have a stack of cheap “accessory” notebooks. My notebook collection certainly is an oddity to most people still, which I enjoy. And I also notice that online, more users for notebook-related forums or retailers are male. An interesting reversal, as online it is much easier to find plain brown and black books than in the wild.

If I were to have to answer my question right now it would be no, if we’re counting all sources here. But I could be right or wrong. This isn’t a formal study of who uses notebooks (now that’s an idea, someone get on that). I can’t give hard answers, but that’s why I use notebooks: to keep all of the thoughts and organize them later, not in any physical sense, but you probably get the idea. I’ll keep writing and thinking, from pink to black.