Category: Articles

So often the ‘Prepper’ circles focus on making sure they can survive a collapse of the government, a violent rebellion, or a zombie apocalypse. That’s certainly really fun to plan for, but it’s far more likely that what you need to be prepared for is shitting your pants at work, stepping in a comically deep puddle walking to lunch, a national toilet paper shortage, or a temporary destabilization of local infrastructure. Actually, losing your income is the most effective prep you can have, but ‘save more money’ is a pretty short article, let’s focus on the gear stuff.

To this end, I get frustrated when I see posts about ‘get home bags’ which are not focusing on anything but civil war and zombies. (If you are thinking: hasn’t he written this before — I have — past posts here and here.) As with anyone who wants to actually carry useful stuff: I rethink, analyze, and refine this bag all the time. In what feels like the right timing, I wanted to address it now as we start a new year.

If a zombie apocalypse, or civil war breaks out, I might be screwed with this gear, but for anything else — I feel pretty good.

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I’ve wanted a Filson 24hr Tin Cloth Briefcase for a very long time, but there was always two things which held me back: the first is that I already had a Filson Original Briefcase so this one seemed redundant; and the second was/is the price tag on the bag.

When I saw this 24hr Briefcase at a really solid second-hand price, I snagged it right away. And like the 48hr Duffle, this bag gives me all sorts of happy vibes, which makes talking about it objectively a lot harder. It’s a very good bag, but most certainly not something that everyone will love, or even like.

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This is the time of the year when flames are oddly comforting. It’s cold, it’s dark, and all I want to do is relax. But when you nail 1000 lumens on your perfectly daylight balanced flashlight against the ceiling — it can take you out of the mood.

Enter the Barebones Living Edison Light Stick, a silly little light gadget that is worth every penny and is a real gem. It’s an odd little thing, so let’s dive in…

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The MDV-106 is a classic, and this Casio “the Duro” is a well known, and well recommended watch for those looking for a classic design on a tight budget. When I first reviewed the watch, it was priced at about $40 — inflation has caught up with it and it’s now priced just under $50 depending on the color you choose.

This is still the same watch I reviewed in 2018, and I summarized it in the original review saying:

Overall, I’m impressed. I’m keeping it too. I really don’t understand why more people aren’t wearing these, it’s perfect in its simplicity and value. To me this watch proves you really don’t need to spend more than $40 to get a really great watch.

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If you have ever searched for military watches, or field watches generally, then you have likely come across Marathon Watch — and most likely also come across their “General Purpose” line of watches. There’s a few variants, but they can be broken down to: Mechanical (GPM) or Quartz (GPQ); and then Tritium or Maraglo. I’ve always thought they looked neat, and something to try out, but the price tag is steep for what looks like a rather plain watch.

But, I grabbed a GPQ with Maraglo from J.Crew during one of their many sales for about $80 — an absolute steal of a deal. I’ve been messing about with it since picking it up, and while I do like it — it’s not really something which draws me in.

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Oh man, this bag. So much drama for a single backpack. Here’s the deal: I really don’t like buying these collaboration bags that Carryology does, as I think they are full of hype and rarely better than whatever bag they replace. Add to that the arrogance of Taylor Weldon over at Carryology — and it becomes very unpalatable. The issue on the Mystery Ranch collaborations, though, is they they often bring back designs you cannot easily buy anywhere else. Rock and a hard place there for me.

So I bought this bag. Actually, I bought two of these bags. And I kind of fucking like them. Damn.

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I love Benchmade knives, but even I start to get a little heartburn when the prices start to get above $250 for them. Mostly because I am skeptical about the steels used, and unconvinced that they are that much better than some of their lower priced options.

So the Mini Freek (565) is a knife I have always wanted, but never bought — until I was offered a solid deal on a secondhand Mini Freek. I picked it up, and I fell in love with it almost immediately. It’s very good.

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Let me tell you a little story of my email correspondence over the years: I post a review of a Mystery Ranch bag, or a GORUCK bag and in the review I talk about how comfortable those bags are. Then, I get a message from someone telling me that I should really try Hill People Gear bags, because there are no more comfortable harness systems on the market — they tell me.

So I go look at their gear, and everything seems to odd looking for me to use day to day, and I move on. Until recently when a member sent me a really good offer on Hill People Gear’s Connor Pack v2, so I went for it. That was months ago, and I have never really got around to reviewing the bag or using it a ton. I did take it to the office and used it rucking a bunch and then it fell away.

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