The Brooks Review

I have my gently used Filson Tablet Briefcase for sale. This is no longer produced by Filson and while you can still find some retailers selling them, they are getting harder to find. Only reason I am selling it is because I tend to use backpacks over shoulder bags, and I don’t want to part with my Filson Original Briefcase. Color is Otter Green, the best Filson color. My Review.

Yours for $130 shipped, only to US shipping addresses. First to pay gets it. SOLD

Continue reading: For Sale: Filson Tablet Briefcase (SOLD)

Members might recall, last year that I took a car camping trip with a group consisting of 3 dads, and 5 kids. I made a video for that, which showed the absurd amount of gear I alone packed. We are coming up on the second year for this trip, and as such I have been going through a bunch of my gear to get it ready to go.

With that in mind, and the summer upon us, it is highly likely that many of you are going to end up getting out of the house and this might necessitate some new gear. That’s what this post is about: the gear we buy for summer fun. I’ll be running through some of my favorite gear, and some thoughts I have on gear I am considering.

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A bit ago Triple Aught Design released the Transport Wallet, which is the companies take on a wallet for travel and adventure. I had seen the wallet walked through on Instagram, and at only $35 I decided to buy it right away when they came out. There’s a few stand out features which sold me on the wallet:

1. Hidden pocket and slots for lockpicks.
2. A way to store small amounts of cash.
3. Quick access pocket for the credit card you normally use.
4. Harder to get to storage for everything else.

The idea of this wallet, or rather the concept of it, is quite interesting. Everything is in a secure spot, but the stuff you need often is readily accessible in an almost one handed manner. However my biggest concern going into this wallet was that I would instantly find it too large.

Continue reading: Triple Aught Design Transport Wallet

Going down the rabbit hole a bit this week. Talking about what makes good iPad software, what it would take to get me to switch back to Apple Watch, and a note that I checked a bag when traveling. Dunkin’ Donuts talk too.

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A year ago I was confronted with something I thought would be really fun, but which turned out to be exceedingly frustrating. I needed a backpack for my daughter who was entering kindergarten. I suspect most parents go to Target and let their kid pick something they like, but there’s simply no way I was going to buy my daughter something that wasn’t high quality.

Since GORUCK no longer makes the Kid Ruck (and they go on EBay for absurd money) I set out researching to find a full-size (all the backpacks she had prior were not full-size, and I define that by “can fit a binder in it”), well made, backpack for my daughter. I hated almost every recommendation that I saw.

Continue reading: Backpacks for Kids

A few big thoughts on WWDC announcements, Overall I’m pretty happy.

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Great overview at The Sweet Setup by Josh Ginter, of a very important new update to Things for iPad. With this update, Things is unequivocally the best task manager you can get. If you are using something else, you’re wasting your time — and isn’t that what you are trying to avoid with your task manager?

Continue reading: Things Controlled by Keyboard

Years ago, I switched to a standing desk when I was working in an office full time. When I left that job to work from home, I worked at a sitting desk for a year before getting another standing desk. But sometimes laziness wins out and it had been sometime since I stood at that desk. A few weeks ago I decided to go all in on it and only stand again.

Since it has been some time since I wrote about this topic, I figured it was time to follow up on it.

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I read a lot of travel sites which talk about the best travel bags and there’s typically only two types of bags recommended: roller bags for the pack everything person, or pretty small bags for those who have “figured it out”. What you don’t see much of is bag recommendations for those who don’t want a roller bag, but also who pack closer to how normal people pack.

Continue reading: Travel Bags for People Who Don’t Pack Light

Om Malik, in a link to Joi Ito on the topic:

I often worry, that just as pro-technology narrative got carried away from 2010 through 2017, we are seeing the pendulum swing to the opposite extreme and taking away some of the magic from technology.

To me the magic of technology is the same as tech optimism. It’s the mindset that technology can and should be able to fix all which ails us, and also which bothers us. It’s a broad definition, but it’s the thinking which led us to here. To now.

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My grandfather, as I am sure many grandfathers do, always seemed to carry a handkerchief. Typically, I would see him pull it out to wipe his nose, or actually blow it (shudder). Always seemed weird to me, and I never understood it.

And then I happened to put one in my briefcase and it came in handy — a fair amount. And my youngest daughter will tell me “this is handy, you should always keep these for me.” So for the past ten months I’ve been carrying a handkerchief with me whenever I leave the house, wondering what good it could be. And these are also very popular in the everyday carry (EDC) community, so I wanted to figure out what the draw was. Here goes…

Continue reading: Handkerchief Everyday Carry Thoughts

I’m not quite ready to review this stuff, but I thought I’d share some initial thoughts on each of them. First up the Vortex Core, then a new wallet, a knife, a new Micro.blog app, and lastly a method I am testing for organizing my GR1 better.

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Over on Everyday Wear, Steve and I detail out our packing lists on a regular basis. The neat side effect of that work is that you get a very good sense for what you pack, and what you didn’t end up using. It’s incredibly effective at lightening your load out. It also works well to help you identify stuff you pack that you really find essential. That’s what this post is about.

And no, I don’t do the Craig Mod method, however I do recommend his tip for showing up to the airport stupidly early.

Continue reading: A Few Travel Essentials

It’s time we talk about Slack and the damage it is doing on the workplace. Then we can talk about keyboards, and iPad file archive security.

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I’ve been trying to convince everyone at MartianCraft that they really need to switch to a nice mechanical keyboard — rightfully many began asking which is the best Bluetooth mechanical board. Which is funny, because the serious mechanical keyboard market seems vehemently opposed to such an idea. However, it had been some time since I looked into it, and all I really knew is that the Matias Laptop Pro is ugly and huge, so that it was out.

Continue reading: The Royal Kludge Keyboard — A $40 Wireless Mechanical Keyboard