Category: Articles

One of the things I am constantly trying to find is a bag to be my “dad bag” — I’ve mentioned my high standards for such a bag before, but want to recap specifically what I am looking for:

• Something 10-20L in size.
• Something which can be packed down to fit inside a GR1/GR2.
• Something which can carry my kids coats in the winter.
• Something which is comfortable to carry all day.

The GORUCK Bullet Ruck 10L, is as close as I have ever come, but it’s hard if not impossible to bring it with you. The Outlier Quadzip came tantalizingly close, but the high price, and some framesheet discomfort left me to sell it too.

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Six years ago, I wrote a post called “The Fragility of Free”, ostensibly about how “free” things will always break down over time, using popular apps, and Twitter as my examples. You can read the post here, while the references are dated (except Twitter) I still like the post.

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Note: this is backpack was provided to me at no charge, for the purposes of this review.

When we last talked about Flowfold, I heaved praise on the their minimalist wallet — which I am still using and love — but I also mentioned that they make backpacks. A couple weeks ago Flowfold sent over their 10L Minimalist backpack, made from the same material (and color in this case, though they sell others) as my wallet. It’s a cute match.

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In my quest to find a solid pocket knife to be my backup to my Chris Reeve Small Sebenza 21, I’ve been looking for something larger, and harder use. Something I have a reason to owning, other than wanting a backup. I initially looked at the Spyderco Paramilitary 2, but found that it was far too cumbersome to carry.

Today, I am looking at Benchmade’s Griptilian, which is the larger of their two Griptilian knives and among one of the most popular knives out there. In this humble knife, I think I might have found my perfect backup knife, and a knife I really enjoy using.

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I had almost given up on trying to find a small pouch to house my extended EDC kit in. The Maxpedition was too large, and cumbersome. The Skinth wasn’t quite right, despite being quite nice. Before giving up I decided to try something entirely different, the SERE Pouch, from Triple Aught Design.

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When I snagged the Ferrosi pants for hiking, I knew I would need to grab a belt of some sort. The common style for hiking is a simple nylon web belt, but I went for something different in the Arcade Adventure Belt. This is a basically an elastic strap with a buckle. What’s neat about this is that it retains a lot of comfort, while allowing you to tighten the belt if you need to support your pants a little more.

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When I switched from the Apple Airport routers, to a Netgear Nighthawk I was damned happy. It had good range and never failed me — I stopped even thinking about my WiFi network. But then Netgear failed to keep me safe, and lost my trust.

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If you read this site, then you know what Apple announced about the iPhone 8 and X models. But did you catch how they described the cameras? With the standard and plus model iPhones, it’s always been a “yeah the Plus has a bigger camera”, which allows us to do something like: optical image stabilization, and then later, dual cameras. Apple always side stepped the which camera is better debate, by not saying one was better than the other, but rather that since one was larger they could add more features. But the truth was always that the Plus had the objectively, and subjectively, better camera. Hands down.

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This is a highly touted knife, and one which I always stayed away from for two reasons:

1. It’s large.
2. I thought it was right hand only.

When I found out that they made a left handed model (though only with black scales and in S30V steel), and coupled with my desire for a larger backup blade, I snagged one. I fully understand now why this knife is so well loved by everyone — it’s a fantastic knife.

But, I doubt I’ll keep it. Let’s dive into this knife…

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Over the years I’ve referenced what bags I carry when I am out and about with the kids, when they were in diapers I called this my diaper bag, and now that they are out of diapers, but still not self-sufficient, it’s my dad bag. (Some of the older posts: here, here, and here.) The biggest struggle is not which bag, but what size bag you want to use for this purpose, and as the kids get older, I’ve found the decision is not any easier.

(Yes you can get buy without a dad bag, but then you rob yourself of two things: fewer tears, and getting to carry a great bag. So that’s pure madness.)

For those on Reddit, you might find me lurking around many subs and commenting here and there on posts, and I recently have been seeing many posts on this very topic, and frequently still get emails about this. I thought it was about time to write this all down and codify it for more people. So here’s my thoughts on how to choose a good dad bag for yourself, as well as what I use.

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Originally, I was going to post these as separate reviews, but I think they work best together. So be warned that this is three reviews of three knives, all of the same heritage from Bradford Knives.

Bradford’s Guardian line of fixed blades knives are available in four sizes, here I look at the 3, 4, and 5 series of knives. These range from a small everyday blade to larger survival blades. Each of the three blades are among the best fixed blade knives I’ve ever used.

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Ok, hang on now. I know you’ve stuck with me through reading about a lot of random shit, and this seems like yet another. But, this is actually not about anything healthy for you as a person, as much as it is about my beloved Merino Wool shirts. You see, most non-natural deodorants tend to clog up the fabric on merino near the arm pits, and thus reduce performance.

So after a lot of reading and research, it seems that using a natural, non-bar, deodorant causes your merino to not only last longer, but perform better. And that’s a way better selling point if you ask me. But I also don’t want to stink, so in the name of science I’ve tried a few natural deodorants which perform well with Merino to see if they can actually — you know — keep the stink at bay.

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