Busy busy busy.
I’ve got a bunch of irons in the fire, so here’s the breakdown:
- I’ve got this site (finally!) looking (and more importantly, behaving) like I’d like. So that’s good. The URL works properly, and the posts look like I’d like. Weird settings were weird, and the previous theme was doing all sorts of stuff that was eating bandwidth and whatnot. Better.
- My newsletter is thundering along. I got a shoutout from Roman Mars on it, and that brought a minor spike in readership. Thanks, Roman! Anyway- it’s been going for more than 6 months. If you’re not signed up, you should fix that here. I think it’s pretty great.
- Working on some cool stuff at work that I might (maybe!) be able to share here. Video is a part of that.
- I’ve been building stuff again- sometimes I forget to, and it’s one of the things that keeps me happy. It’s a bit like being outside: I don’t really ever think about it, but when I haven’t done it for a bit I get grumpy. I made some shoes (#timsnottoms) for my eldest kid, and I’m in the midst of making some for the middle kid. I also, in the middle of that, made myself a backpack. More on that below. I also finally finished refinishing a fiberglass shell armchair I’ve had for a while. I’ve been refinishing some vintage rangefinder cameras, too. More on those soon. If you want to see what I’m working on more often than my once-in-a-blue-moon posts here, follow me on instagram.
The backpack. I’m picky when it comes to bags- they need to do what I want, as I want, and they need to not fail. And they need to do only what I want- I hate the addition of features I don’t need. I hate extra. I’d made a shoulder bag for daily carry that also let me keep a camera with me, and that was great- but it was a little too small for days when I needed a jacket or second shirt or whatever- and when it was loaded, it could get a little rough on my shoulder. So- backpack. I’ve liked the work that GoRuck has done, and I’ve found Bo Gear to be building some good gear too- but GoRuck had more “stuff” than I needed (never mind the justifiably high cost), and Bo Gear was in Australia and similarly offered somewhat more “stuff” than I wanted. A simple solution: I built mine out of cotton duck cloth (10oz) instead of 1000d Codura because I want mine to wear in over time (and for some weight savings). No waist strap, no sternum strap. No padding on the shoulder straps either. No external pockets. No compression straps. Padded back, padded internal laptop/hydration bladder pocket. Two notebook pockets, two pen pockets. Three rows of PALS, one band of 2″ Velcro (loops). That’s it. I even got rid of the storm flap over the zipper and used a waterproof (resistant) zipper instead (a #8, if you must know). It’s about 10″ wide, 17.5″ tall, and 4.5″ deep. It’s exactly what I need, with none of the complications or features I don’t need. And it’s awesome. I just started a second, miniaturized version for my 2 year old son. It’s going to be sweet. And tiny.- I’m on Beme, but I’m not sure for how much longer. It’s neat, but it feels really hard for me to connect there. We’ll see if I keep it.
And so it goes.
