Inspired by a post by Michael White at https://notesfrommwhite.net/2016/11/11/whats-in-the-bag/ – I thought it would be interesting to share what’s in my laptop bag as well. And I bet those of you who know me have been curious before – my satchel is definitely my trademark.
As someone who travels pretty much endlessly, the items in this bag have been refined over many trips to be maximally useful with minimum bulk. Everything must have a purpose or there’s just no room for it.
First up is the bag itself. I see this leather beast as a long time friend and companion – it’s toured the world with me and I can’t imagine a journey without it. It’s a Saddleback Medium Original Briefcase, and yes – it’s heavy as hell. Weighs almost 8lbs empty. My one vice when it comes to the “pack light” mentality.
The bag is organized into two main compartments, with a few small pockets inside. It’s nowhere near as full as it looks; plenty of room for more if and when necessary. Usually I’ll wad up a sweatshirt or something in there too.
Inside the bag are the following items:
- My trusty 13″ MacBook Pro Retina (+stickers, of course)
- iPad Pro 9.7″ in a Waterfield Designs case
- Cable and Dongle bag (more on that below)
- Sunglasses
- Bluetooth Headphones
- VMware ID
- Olight Smini Baton Ti flashlight
- Fjallraven card case for business cards, status membership cards, vouchers, etc
- Flowfold wallet
- Bose QC20i headphones
- Big Idea Design aluminum pen (with UniBall Jetstream ink, since I’m a smear-prone lefty)
- Leather notebook cover with Field Notes notebook
- Kindle Paperwhite
The iPad is a mini-computer in and of itself, thanks to the keyboard case, Pencil and VMware Horizon 🙂
And inside the cable and dongle bag are the following:
- Zolt Charger and cable (charges my MacBook and has 2 additional USB charging ports – much lighter and smaller than an Apple charger and a bunch of additional USB chargers)
- Bundle of lightning, micro-USB and Fitbit chargers
- Spare wired headphones
- Little fold-out USB hub from Palo Alto Networks (one of the most useful giveaways I’ve ever gotten – great for charging all those little devices at once)
- 32GB and 16GB thumb drives
- VMware vCloud Air battery pack
- Apple Watch charging cable
That’s pretty much it! Thanks again to Michael (follow him @mwVme) for the fun idea.
And, of course – this post was brought to you by Saison Dupont’s Cuvee Dry Hopping series. A unique yearly spin on the classic Belgian Farmhouse that allows the brewer to experiment with dry hopping. This year’s version used Brewer’s Gold hops and came out delicious – sweet and bitter with that famous Saison Dupont brettanomyces tang.