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I’ve never owned a Winkler before this one, but I’ve long wanted one so I was really excited to get this. And when it came time to snag one — I was torn between getting a larger knife first, or one that I might actually carry. I went with something smaller that I could carry, and really this could be the only fixed blade I own and I would never be left for wanting.

The Winkler Standard Duty 2 (SD2) is fantastic in every way. And it’s one of the best looking knives I own.

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I’ve been going all in on sling bags since the start of the pandemic. It’s hard to carry all the stuff I want to carry with me without a sling at this point: knife, keys, wallet, flashlight, pen, hand sanitizer, masks, mints. That’s not fitting in my pockets, I live in Houston so I can’t rely on jacket pockets, and cargo pants/shorts are a non-starter for me.

Sling it is. I’ve reviewed a lot lately, and one of my favorites I kept going back to was Hill People Gear’s Belt Pack (which just came out in a larger size). I was set to buy another in the larger size, but when Marsupial Gear dropped this Fanny Pack, I jumped at it, and now I don’t really have a need for the larger Hill People Gear Belt Pack, because this sling is the sling for me.

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Able Carry has been making the rounds in the blogs and YouTube channels I do follow, and I wanted to check out what they had on offer — but their bags don’t speak to me. So I grabbed two pouches, and found a brand with nice finishing, excellent materials and very low prices. These two pouches have been kicking around my gear for a while now, so let me run you through them both.

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Note (3/10/21): The maker of this lived just south of Kyiv, Ukraine. He evacuated from the area after the war started, and thus currently is not able to sell/ship things. I wish him the best.

A little while ago ‘Walkman Backpacks’, a seller on eBay, released a laptop sleeve which is made to be installed into the Mystery Ranch ASAP — my favorite backpack. I had held off getting one while I waited to hear from a few I know who had them. I finally gave in, as the Aer Tech Folio I had been using, started to feel a little cumbersome.

I reached out to Igor, the seller, directly and had him make me standard laptop sleeve, but also a custom Admin Pouch with a hook back for it. They all came in a while back and I have fallen in love with this setup, and it’s proven versatile too. Let’s dive in…

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I snagged this during a recent sale from Grey Ghost Gear as I had been wanting to check this particular pouch out. My primary reason is it being a vertical orientation, but also I’ll admit that the chem light holders on it are another large draw — I love some chem lights.

It’s a mixed bag for me with this pouch.

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This week: overloading my EDC to cope with stress; protecting your iPad and other devices; and small bits on the Axiom 24, GSHOCK GA2100, and Ricoh GR IIIx.

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I recently received this stand as a gift, and it is supremely good. So we are going to dive right in. This a simple stand for the iPad Pro models (two different stands for the two different models) which allows you to magnetically connect your iPad to the stand — it raises your iPad up a little more, and allows a lot of different angles and articulation for the device.

It is one of my favorites.

Or, you can buy it here and see for yourself.

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I had managed to sleep through the first version of this knife coming out, but not this version as it was posted in the member Discord — a dangerous place to be most days. As soon as I saw this, I struggled to pick the color and blade I would want. But ended up getting the fully blacked out Hogue Deka (gen 2) with the wharncliffe blade.

This is one of my favorite pocket knives.

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Roam around the flashlight world long enough and you see people express a lot of love for Zebralight flashlights. I never gravitated towards them, as I don’t find them to look particularly good — but when you own enough flashlights you get to a point where you know you need to try one. You know you need to find out why this matters.

I hit that point.

I grabbed the SC64w HI, and have been using it for a bit now. I get it. I see why people like these lights. They are far from perfect, but they do a lot really well.

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I put this post idea down last August, little did I know then that the weather this winter would be insane, a major volcano would erupt in the Pacific causing many tsunami warnings, and oh tornados — doesn’t bode well for the summer fire/hurricane seasons if you ask me to extrapolate from unrelated events. Anyways, this isn’t a listing of gear in my bags, but rather updates to my thinking about each bag, the needs for the bags, as well as other odds and ends of that nature.

The big thing heading into 2022 is my shifting focus and thinking around which bag I prioritize, and focusing more directly on the most likely, instead of the most terrifying needs. Which is surprisingly hard for me personally to do.

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I’ve managed to standardize on two bags I rotate between for heading to the office day to day. Back in October of 2021 I told members about this setup, and it’s still my setup, so it’s time to go a little deeper on this, why these two bags, why two bags, and how I shift between them.

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