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EDC 2020

This is the everyday carry I’ve more or less assembled piece by piece and kept in heavy rotation over the last 4+ years. While these items are maybe not the best at what they do I’d argue they hold their value very well.

This is the Topo Designs Mountain Daypack, which I believe is no longer for sale. It’s performed very well, though I might recommend (for this or any other Topo bag) buying a generic rain cover. Notable accessories include an Obey Giant “Make America Smart Again” pin, a handful of Jean-Michel Basquiat pins from Pintrill, a console pin from Github’s shop, and a For Fans by Fans Guild Wars 2 commander pin. (I think the only thing you can actually get your hands on anymore is the GW2 pin. Also always make sure to use metal locking pin clutches for your pins.)

I take a lot of notes via pen and paper, both at work and elsewhere. To keep everything secure I use a Rite in the Rain side bound book cover which has worked well, though I’d recommend not over stuffing it. My notebooks include a Rhodia Pocket Webnotebook and a Field Notes notebook with an 11:11 Great Ganesha cover. The 11:11 covers aren’t the most durable, but they’ll extend the life of your notebooks by a few years, and they’ll fare well enough in an office environment. (For some reason people really notice the Flight Deck cover. I used one for a while and I’d always get comments on it.) My pencil is a Pentel Graph Gear 1000 (0.7) with Pentel Ain lead. My pen is a Karas Pen Co Bolt with an Itoya AQR-10BP-BK Aquaroller pen ink refill.

My keychain is an Handgrey H1 Carabiner with a Swiss+Tech Utili-Key. My pocket knife of choice is the Gerber EAB (Exchange-A-Blade) pocket knife and it is eminently useful, I whole-heartedly recommend it. My wallet is an older iteration of the Distil Wally Bifold, I can vouch for it’s ability to stand the test of time. While the light is a bike light, a Beryl Pixel, I use it on my backpack during any dark winter commutes when I might bus and walk home. My sunglasses are Sunskis, which I can not recommend enough.

My phone is a Pixel 3, mostly because I have a preference for Android over iOS and I prefer something close to stock. The case is an Otterbox, which has always been up to the task. I’ve dropped my phone on concrete more than a few times. I also tend to carry an Olympus TG-4 with me, mostly because of it’s waterproofing, durability and macro mode. I believe the camera line is on 6 now, once this one dies I’ll probably upgrade but I haven’t really had a reason to yet^[1]. It’s really, really great for kayaking or going to the beach.

My main camera of choice is an Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II often with the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO Lens. While the E-M5II has a lot of nice features and is maybe more camera than I need, in both cases the thing that most attracted me is the weatherproofing as I often like to take photos in bad weather. I’m pleased with its performance thus far and haven’t felt the need to upgrade^[1:1]. The strap is a Peak Designs Slide.

The COVID-19 era requires new (at least for the States) considerations when it comes to your everyday carry. So far I’ve settled on the Rendall Sentry mask and Old Navy’s masks. In both cases I basically bought what was available at the time, so not a lot of research was done on my part. So far they’ve performed well.