Do you get ink smudges on your smartphone?
Do you pull out a fountain pen only to find out it’s a stylus?
Do you use both a planner app and a Moleskine diary?
Do you doodle in meetings with both pen on paper AND Paper by 53?
Welcome to My Life As a Cyborg.
The perfect cyborg bag has yet to exist. In the meantime, I’ve tried these.
This Tumi T-Tech Forge Steel City Slim backpack has plenty of pockets.
The side pockets can hold these Sakura paintbrush cases (scroll down), and items I can fold or roll.
There’s a front zippered pocket to hold essentials for quick retrieval.
The bag has two main zippered compartments. The main one is for a laptop. It can barely hold a 15″ MBP, but was fine with my 13″ MBA. The other compartment, shown open here, expands decently. It can hold a couple of paper notebooks, a magazine, a book maybe, and a tiny bag to organize chargers. Two pen slots are welcome, as is a gadget pocket. The SIII fits with wiggle room to spare.
I gravitate to bags of the vertical persuasion nowadays. So this tote is par for the course. What’s there not to like? It’s big. It’s black. It zips.
My two favorite bag makers both start with an H: Herschel is one, Hedgren is the other. Herschel is the more recent find of the two. Bratpack carries them.
I can simply slide an iPad in a case into the front pocket. Done.
A padded compartment protects a laptop up to 15″. The rest of the space can hold paper notebooks, chargers and pen cases. Two smaller pockets can hold keys, passes and of course, more pens.
Oh, another H-bag. This one is by Hex. The material’s spiffy, but that’s not all the bag’s got going for it.
You know how sometimes “writing instrument” sounds so feature-heavy compared to “pen?” I think this is less “bag” and more “carry equipment.”
I wonder if this design can save me the extra step of pulling out the iPad and placing it in a tray when I go through airport security?
The padding inside means there’s less space for notebooks and pens than I would like.
Still, there are pockets for pens. There’s a strap I can attach my keychain to, and room for a B5 sketchbook, a pen case and a wallet.
This bag only seems like it’s the smallest in this batch.
“There are more compartments in this bag, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Tiny front pocket for loose change and keys, bigger front pocket for phone, pocket behind that for passport and ticket…and the main compartment can hold an iPad (!), a pen case and a B5 sketchbook.
Just when I thought it couldn’t hold any more, it could.
Four elastic pen loops, two pockets, a stretchy cord to secure keys, and still more space for a Midori Traveler’s Notebook and my rather hefty wallet.
I just wish it were vertical.
What’s your analog-digital carry equipment like?
