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Ideal bag for mobile lifestyle
Jamie Phelps | Feb 28 2006
I'm having some trouble with my bag situation. Right now, I am carrying my LLBean backpack. This works pretty well for the most part. What it doesn't do so well is manage my laptop's cables and adapters well. I carry my charging brick and it's extension, retractable USB cables for my cell phone and iPod, display adapters for my Powerbook, a retractable firewire cable (just in case I need to do target mode), the cable for my digital camera (I know this isn't entirely necessary most of the time, and I could make this better by getting a retractable one.), and I think that's all... Then, I carry my moleskine (the smaller one), a mead marble memo pad, another journal for writing song lyrics and chord progressions I come up with, mints, Advil, antibacterial lotion, Crabtree & Evelynn Gardener's Hand Therapy, at least one book that I am supposed to be reading in for class, at least one legal pad and a steno pad, a couple file folders of project support material, and some spare file folders. What I would like is a messenger style bag that handles my laptop and its cables as well as handling my other life stuff. I also want it to fit my 12" Powerbook nicely. I think I will get one to fit a 15" though so that if/when I get a MacBookPro it will still work. It would also be nice to not have to carry a separate gym bag if at all possible. Since I am on the move a lot, I also want a stabilizer strap to keep the thing from bouncing on my hip. So far, the "Embarrassment" line from Crumpler seems to fit what I want, but I would like to know what my fellow boarders think. Have you used these bags? Do you recommend something else? 21 Comments
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 Before I bought my last...Submitted by pooks on March 7, 2006 - 5:40pm.
Before I bought my last bag, I ordered several online at once, knowing I would be returning all but one. I decided it was worth the postage. The Crumpler was cool but it didn't work for what I wanted. I think I mentioned before that I figured out after trying several that I actually didn't want another horizontal bag -- I wanted a vertical one. Check and see if they offer any of the ones you like at ebags -- ebags usually offers free postage at least to you, which would cut the expense in half. But don't be afraid to order what you think you want and send it back if you don't like it. The other thing I finally learned after buying several different bags through the years is that no matter how much I think I'm going to like all those compartments, they quickly become annoying to me and I end up shoving stuff in loose. Either the pockets are tight and I have to be slow and careful to get things in, or they're arranged in a way that doesn't come natural to me. I finally realized that for purses, backpacks and bags I prefer something that is largely open, and I provide my own pouches. My iPod gear (and some of my camera gear, as well) fits nicely into the gear bag from SFBags. I have my own SFBag laptop sleeve. A small makeup bag. I do have a couple of pockets on the front that work well for the moleskine and some other smaller things, or a paperback, etc. I have a mesh pouch for a water bottle. But otherwise I like to have stuff in their own pouches which I can then easily remove and put in another bag at the drop of a hat, rather than all the built in compartments. » POSTED IN:
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