Pros: Delightful To Use, Roomy , Excellent Design and Engineering, Napoleon Pocket, Lightweight , Great Strap Length, High Quality, Attractive, Great Craftsmanship, Comfortable , Durable
Best Uses: Commuting, School, Office, Day Trips, Computer Laptop, Airplane travel
I spent quite a while (months/years) looking at almost every messenger bag in existence (and even contemplated designing my own) for my mobile office and for weekly trips to study abstract mathematics at UCLA. I’ve been through dozens of bags (including one that could only charitably have been called a “murse”) and had problems with all of them – particularly shoulder and neck problems from carrying around so much weight. The Timbuk2 Command messenger bag ($139, medium, black) seems to have remedied all of that. My neck and shoulder pains have gone away because this bag is simply so comfortable it feels like I’m carrying half the load that I used to.
The two length adjustment mechanisms on the shoulder strap of this bag should be a requirement for every bag on the planet. I simply don’t know how I managed without them for all this time and now I can never go back. One makes it dead simple to take the bag on and off and the other allows for additional easy length change – the combination makes the bag wear incredibly comfortably.
As an engineer I can readily appreciate some of the very subtle design and manufacturing elements that truly make this bag a wonder. It’s not only functional and sturdy, but it’s both beautiful inside and out. Timbuk2 has certainly put some serious thought into how to make a bag. In particular the velcro strips at the top of the the flap to keep water out, the Napoleon pocket (so one doesn’t have to completely open the bag to retrieve frequently used items), the plastic strips sewn into the lining to provide additional internal structural support, and an ingenious custom pocket at the bottom of the bag for my cables and computer power brick are simply genius.
My only minor caveats about the bag are:
Although there are quite a number of great and useful pockets, I could do with maybe half a dozen more for daily use to keep either small items (I carry my desk in my bag) or organizing additional papers from floating around inside the bag. One can’t really fault Timbuk2 for this as it’s personal preference on my part and I haven’t seen any other bags on the market with a better designed grouping of pocket spaces for such things.
Having a slightly larger water bottle carrier on the outside of the bag would also be excellent, but it’s nearly perfect for my Zojirushi stainless steel thermos and most small (<16 ounce) plastic water bottles. I’ll mention that one of Timbuk2’s line of Classic messenger bags includes internal water bottle pockets for those that desire something like this — or who need full waterproof interiors. The Command bag is roomy enough that I’ve also contemplated using a Camelback-type of fluid reservoir and drinking tube inside for longer day-trips.
As a comparison, the next closest high quality bag I’ve seen in my research is Tumi’s Alpha Bravo Benning Deluxe Messenger Bag ($275). It rates incredibly high for design and beauty, but slightly lower on the functionality scale (which still makes it one of the top 0.1% of bags on the market in my mind, so if you’ve got the money, it’s definitely worth it). It’s almost twice the price and though it’s got equivalent design touches and is made from some equivalently excellent materials with fantastic craftsmanship, it is missing some of the more interesting engineering touches including the engineering work on the shoulder strap.
Some might consider this a “Using” page, a “Recommendations page” or something equivalent. Simply put, it’s a list of the tools and things I find incredibly useful and intriguing. Most of them are things I either use on a daily basis or couldn’t get along without. They’re things I love and have no reservations in recommending others use.
Some are underappreciated, unknown, and deserve wider adoption. I hope you find the list useful and may find your next favorite thing while browsing them.
Electronics
Samsung Galaxy 6Kindle Paperwhite e-reader – I use only for reading, highlighting, and notetakingKindle Fire 7″ HD used primarily with Balto Speed Reading and for Netflix
Roku – (considering upgrade to a newer Premiere+ streaming player)Google Chromecast – fantastic for sending video from almost any device to my television
Daily Tools
Uni Kuru Toga 0.5mm mechanical pencil – beautiful, stylish, and robustLivescribe Echo Pen 8GB
Markings journal by C.R. Gibson – 5″x8″, square ruled as a bullet journalTimbuk2 Command Messenger BagZojurishi Travel Mug
Home
Kitchen
AeroPress
Cambro plastic containers ranging from 2qt-8qt for more easily storing bulk goods
OXO Good Grips Jar Spatula, White has been my single-most used kitchen item after my knife
325 Watt Artisan Kitchen Aide stand mixer with a handful of attachments.
Salter 3003 Aquatronic Glass Electronic Kitchen Scale
Maverick CT-03 Oil & Candy Digital Thermometer
CDN DSP1 Dual Sensing Probe Thermometer and Timer
Software
LaTeX – a document preparation systemMikTeX – my specific implementation of LaTeXWinEdt – my preferred text editorCalibre – a spectacular database tool for storing, sorting, and maintaining e-booksOneNote – a wonderful note taking tool that’s integrated into my email, do do lists, etc.
Services
NetflixAmazon Prime
Spotify (music streaming, discovery)
Android Apps
Balto Spped Reading – Uses rapid serial visual presentation to improve reading speed. Great for reading newspaper/magazine articles and fiction. This particular app is one of the few that can handle the DRM on Kindle books properly.Office Lens – great for capturing documents (a digital scanner in photo format)
Feedly – a great feed readerWoodwind.xyz – a fantastic indie feed reader which integrates with my websiteAntenna Pod – my favorite new podcatcher; it does almost everything I could want including the ability to listen at higher speeds than 1x.
Nuzzel – awesome algorithmic news feeds based on my Twitter and Facebook accounts
GoodReads – how can any reader do without this?
IFTTT
Waze – the de rigueur traffic app for living in Los AngelesPushbullet – an app that mirrors my phone to my computer desktop; it allows for notifications, texts, and phone calls to pop up on my computer as well as sending data to my other connected devices.
Timehop
URL forwarder
Memrise
Website Tools
WithKnown
WordPress
Indieweb
PressForward
IndieWeb Plugin
Bookmarklets
Reading.am – marking items as “I’m reading right now” which then flows into my PressForward workflowSpritzlet– for using rapid serial visual presentation for speed reading web articlesHuffduffer – A site for bookmarking audio for both discovery and for creating podcast feeds for easy subscription. I REALLY love Huffduffer!Known Stream – allows for quick posts to my Known CMS installationPressForward nominate – for bookmarking articles to read later
Inspiration
This page was primarily inspired by a few posts I’d written about “What I’m Using” which in turn were inspired by LifeHacker, Supersite for Windows, and The Actor’s Studio among others. I’ve recently come across some conversation on the general topic, some of which is influenced by the Now movement.
Below are some of these more recent sources:
Matt Gemmell
Jason Rodriguez
Eddie Hinkle
The Setup (aka usethis.com)
The Cramped
Aaron Parecki
Katie Floyd
Ryan Barrett
I suspect I may still do annual(ish) posts like the others, but it seems interesting/useful to have a shorter aggregated page for readers to have a quicker list view of these items. In some sense, portions of the longer posts are now chunked out in my Now page which is updated a few times a month.
Note: Some of the links on this page are affiliate links to online stores, but my goal is truly to help others rather than make a profit. The pittance I make on the site from these links generally doesn’t even cover hosting costs. If I didn’t purchase a product with my own money, it won’t be listed here. Absolutely none of these recommendations are paid placements. Manufacturers and marketers are highly discouraged from contacting me about paid placements. Readers are encouraged and welcome to share with me what they’re using. I love recommendations for awesome things.
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