Month: October 2025

Shopping at the Narita Airport before leaving Japan, I had decided to check out a store which sold Porter bags, in hopes of picking up a backpack on my way out. After debating a couple of models, I bought Porter’s Force Daypack (855-05902) and it quickly won me over with its premium materials, simple design, and smart features.

This bag looks basic, and it is, but those basics are executed so well — it’s among the best backpacks I’ve used and own.

So there’s that.

(more…)

Sometime around 2003, I decided that The Matrix was very cool looking, and that the translucent terminal windows you could get in Linux systems at the time was the way to go. I was in college, and that was the extent of my thinking. There was a guy who always walked around campus with one of those small Sony Viao Ultrabooks with Linux on it and everything was a bunch of translucent terminal windows — what a nerd, but what a fucking cool looking machine.

I reformatted my Dell laptop and installed Red Hat on it — I think I even had to go to a store to get the disks in order to do this.

I spent the next several months completely lost on the system, not knowing how to do most things. I had no guide on it, and every time I tried to submit a paper/assignment digitally, it failed because of incompatibility. It was a mess, and as cool as I could make the system look, it was actually useless to me. And truth be told, I barely could figure out how to make the system look cool.

Then our house was robbed and that laptop was gone. I replaced it with the vaunted PowerBook G4 12”, and I was a Mac convert. Until 2015, when the iPad Pro came out and I ditched the Mac for iPads.

I have not, to be clear, switched back to a Mac or a Linux based system, but I do think Linux is very much worth considering right now, and should I need to give up my iPad Pro, Linux is where I would head. I say that as someone who also has a MacOS based computer in my office — that is for the first time in quite some time, I’ve been in and out of all three systems.

Linux, in 2025, is vastly different than it’s ever been. And it’s really good, and very easy.

(more…)

Having gone over the gear I carry hiking, I thought I would dive into the clothing I have come to like. The big caveat to all of this is that all bodies are different and what fits you well, may not fit me well — so I am going to talk both about some specific items, and some types and materials to look for. This might get long.

Also, while Colorado has cold and snow, it doesn’t have a lot of ‘wet’ — so my PNW friends this is going to be less useful for you as I very rarely need rain gear.

(more…)

A lot of the winter, I wear Filson’s iconic Short Lined Tin Cloth cruiser. It is warm only because it’s heavy and cuts wind like a pro. As soon as the weather starts to warm up, that jacket can become much too warm to wear. Which is a shame, but luckily Filson looked to fill that gap this year with the new Ranger Short Cruiser.

This is an unlined, lighter weight, dry waxed jacket with similar styling. The cut is more modern and this is more casual jacket than it is true workwear. However, I have become a big fan of this jacket, as it’s likely the jacket most people actually want and need when they buy the Short Lined Tin Cloth Cruiser.

(more…)

Since moving to Boulder, I have been doing a lot of day hiking. An activity I grew up doing as a kid, is now more accessible and awesome than it ever was in the past. Yet, when you spend seven or so years away from an activity like this, you feel a little out of touch and (if you are like me) start researching what people are using and carrying these days.

That lead me to a lot of confusion. The lists were odd to say the least. Filled with a lot of extraneous gear, or almost no gear at all. I thought I would share my day hiking list after my first year back with the activity, giving you about 12 months of an obsessive and prepared gear focused list as possible.

But, before we get to that, we need to tackle a few different philosophies people take when they hike and compare it to mine.

(more…)

Note: this item was provided for review.

I love a good heavy work shirt. I’ve come to find that this type of shirt, something which sits just shy of an overshirt/shirt-jacket, is insanely versatile and a type of shirt I constantly reach for. Perhaps it’s the climate I live in, or perhaps it’s that I work from home, but whatever it is, I’m a fan. So when Haven was getting ready to release their fall lineup, and offered to send me a Travail Shirt in Cotton Corduroy — I jumped at the chance.

My last go with Haven was with a Polartec Alpha Fleece which was hard for me to review because my wife kept swiping it to wear. I’ve hidden away this shirt better, and I have to say, I would be shocked if this was not one of my most worn items through the next several months.

(more…)

I don’t wear much ’technical’ type of clothing anymore, but I found myself with a good reason to want something. While planning my packing list for my trip to Japan, I realized that all the pants I was packing are linen. But I wanted something a little less airy to fly in, something very comfortable, and something that I could toss on if needed while traveling — and which are inherently durable. I quickly honed in on wanting chinos, and even more quickly realized I wanted something that looked like Officer chinos, but with a bit more comfort for sitting in cramped quarters for over 10 hours straight.

That led me to these Gentry NT Officer’s Chinos from Triple Aught Design. They looked pretty good, had just enough added technical features to lend comfort to them. So I went for them, and I am glad I did — these are pretty solid chinos overall.

(more…)