July 2013 EDC Haul!

;July has been an unusually good month for me. I never spend too much, but now and then good things happen and I get a lot more stuff than usual. In June, all I got was... a bottle of ink. But here's this month's haul:

Not the best pic, but oh well. I'll go chronologically. 

Weight

How much does your EDC weigh? I try to keep it down as much as I can (jogging with everything jiggling around just feels weird.) Here's my EDC items/weight:

My cell phone is depressing. Yeah I really need to get it replaced soon. Surprises? How light a bunch of my stuff are. The oakleys weigh almost the same as my pen. Technically, the wallet is only 38 grams. I keep a silver eagle in there and that's 31 grams. So yeah. The wallet and the FAK really weigh nothing. I should do a post on my FAK. Tyvek REALLY helps. I weighed the shell of my old wallet, and that weighed more than the current wallet with stuff in it. Kind of surprised how heavy the dragonfly is compared to the knife I made. They both use G10 scales, and the one I made is 4" long. I guess the backlock design really weighed down the dragonfly. Oh, and I used titanium liner in mine. 

Zebralight is around right, with a AA battery in it. Watch is dang heavy, but given that it's an automatic I expected it. And don't care. I love my watch. 

Spyderco!

If you've ever seen a photo of my entire knife collection (I'll post a picture soon), you'll notice around half the knives have a hole in the blade. The other halfish are made by.. me! I have the largest collection of Minibear knives in the world. Which isn't saying much. Point is, aside from a swiss army and a gerber (POS, was not worth it. I avoid gerber like the plague now), my only production knives are Spydercos. My Endura was my first "real" knife, and I've found that Spydercos have a great quality. On the occasional miss, the warranty will have the knife back within 3 weeks. (My Navaja's Carracca broke once.) I tend to stick with a brand once I know it, so thus, I've stuck with Spyderco. My reasons for avoiding other companies?

Rockstar?

I'm not really a caffeine junkie or anything, but I love coffee. Not that I over do it. One cup now and then. Sometimes if I'm tired, sometimes if I go to a cafe. Either straight up black (I've never added milk/sugar to my coffee), or a dry cappuccino. Bonus points if you can make a iced dry cappuccino. (Purists would argue that's not a cappuccino, but I love having the warm foam over cold coffee.) Anyways, the point is that I had my first can of Rockstar in a very very long time. I usually just get caffeine from coffee. Energy drinks, IMO, are a decent source of caffeine, but taste unpleasant and I'd much rather just get coffee. (Although energy drinks are probably cheaper.)


So, this morning, I went to see my brother off at the airport. I got 4 hours of sleep in total. And I had six hours of volleyball. And my car broke down. Some anti-freeze tube leaked. So I had to bike to volleyball. Which was around 25 minutes away (5 miles.)

So I hopped on Noleta (my bike), feeling all nice and woozy. You know that feeling when you just wake up, and it's kind of like your mind's still asleep and your eyes aren't really processing anything? Yup. Ladidada... anyways, I passed by a 7-11. I figured... well, six hours of volleyball was gonna suck. So might as well go for an energy drink.

So I went in and looked. I've always got rockstar just because. It was kind of my first can (a few years back, it was between red bull, monster, and rockstar. And I knew I hated the first two from sips I got from friends. So I've always just went with rockstar. Yup. Brand loyalty ftw.) My last can had been the original two years ago before a volleyball game. (Deja Vu?) I was definitely not going to get the original flavor, because that tart flavor definitely was not pleasant. It's like drinking some sort of wake-up medicine.  Skipped zero carb/no sugar as a rule. Recovery... well I didn't need to recover. (I have no idea what all the flavors are supposed to do.) And settled with:

Sorry about the terrible picture. I just walked out, sat down, and poured everything into my spare nalgene. Because biking. But it's the punched guava one. You can see the color in the bottle on the left- a nice reddish-pink. I liked the purple can. 

I just had a few drops of what was left in the can, and biked on. I was kinda of late. Oops, I go on too many tangents huh? Point is, I drank it at around 1:30. I only drank 8oz, since I figured I'd save the rest for later. And it was amazing. The taste... well I actually wanted to drink it. It had a lovely fizzy carbonation with a sweet taste of guava. It doesn't really taste like guava.. but I don't mind the sweet interpretation.  And I went to play. At first: Nope. Nothing. No kick. At around 2:00, the kick came in, and I started to get more energy, and a little bit more excited. (As a rule, caffeine just elevates my happiness and makes me a little giddy. Nothing too crazy. And I generally don't crash.) Not a bad kick. Then, at 4:00ish, I died. It was really sad to see. I kept serving, and I was missing around 25% of my serves. (And that's pretty bad. I usually make over 95%- more if I give an easy lob of a serve.) They weren't even really misses, my hand just wouldn't hit the ball right on, and I didn't really give it the umph. It was pathetic. So I drank the rest.

And that, is where it all worked out. It took another 30ish minutes to kick in for me, but once it did.. I was good to go. I played well, serves were going over, and wasn't tired. The stuffy head feel went away too! And I kept playing, biked home without even slowing down too much. I could feel I was tired, but I could keep going the entire time. And I got home at around 8:30, came in, and started to feel tired. No crash, but just the "I'm tired from too much exercise tired."

So there. Not really an EDC post, but it kind of is. I mean, I did carry it in my nalgene right? Let's hope I don't get addicted to energy drinks. Oh well, they say you can take 400mg a day without any adverse effects... If I suddenly stop posting, then stay away from rockstar. 

Tyvek Wallet?

Well, when I won the Spyderco Dragonfly from Endgame's contest, he sent it to me... with a tyvek envelope. So I got to it today. Not the best I could have done, but I'll use my awkward one hand construction as an excuse for now. I've got plenty of material left though. I can make another one easy.

I'm not too sure how long it's going to last... but for the moment, it works. Thin as heck too!

I don't really keep that much stuff in my wallet. I have around 10 bills, 6 cards (mostly gift cards, a library card, debit, and driver's license.) I'm carrying my silver eagle around for now though. The front right pocket (you can just see a shadow of the coin) is really for a challenge coin though. I'm waiting for one of Mooshi's Mooshbot Minion coins to put there! 

I tried to write on the Tyvek.. but it BLEEDS. -.- Probably should have used a sharpie actually. But too late. That's Noodler's Bulletproof 54th Mass. 

Not sure how long it's going to hold up, but I'll use it until it dies. 

Penmanship.

Or maybe the P should be switched with a t. Cursive seems to be fading out. I don't have the neatest cursive, but in my opinion it is workable. But apparently some people still can't read it. Kind of sad when you think that one day, people won't be able to read cursive. Since schools aren't teaching it, I suspect there'll only be a few pockets here and there who learn from their parents, and eventually it might fade out. Anyways, because I got annoyed with people not being able to read, I switched my handwriting to a Chancery Italic. Technically I didn't "switch" (I have three different 'fonts'- a chicken scratch, cursive, and an italic), but it's hard to move back and forth since it becomes a habit to me. So yup. Here's the three types. Sorry for all the mistakes, I ended up mixing some letters. And the italic got sloppy. The last bit of italic is probably the better bit. This was written with a TWSBI Mini Classic and Sailor Jentle Blue ink.

Knifemaking!

So, for those of who don't know, I'm also a novice knifemaker. And by that, I mean I fiddle around and do stuff with knives. I'm not good at it, and I'm much too impatient to get a good finish, but I'm proud that my knives lock up with zero blade play- pretty hard given the tools I use. I use no electrical tools except for a hand held drill. So the amount of precision I'm getting is very debatable. But it works out. Here's what I've done so far, in order:

Silver!

Well, I've always wanted to buy Silver. Since around.. a year or so ago. There are many reasons for it, but the biggest one driving me was the fact that our money isn't worth anything. How much is a $100 bill worth? Technically, it's worth however many folds you can give it while wiping your butt. However, it has worth because of.... mutual trust. Oh look at that. A bill is only worth something because people think it's worth something. It's a fancy piece of paper that everyone's agreed to use. It's not backed by gold either. Nope. So if anything happened to that trust... yup. But on the other hand, precious metals have a certain price because of the demand. They're precious. Silver's used in all sorts of industrial tasks. So it will always be worth a certain amount. That price just fluctuates with supply and demand.

So I sort of wanted to buy silver then. (At the time I was really into the whole TEOTWAWKI preparing thing. I still have a bug out bag loaded and ready to go.) But silver kept going up and up and it was a terrible time to buy. Now, silver's fallen back down, and what the heck I may I as well right? So I managed to buy two coins today (oh wow so much!) for $24 each. Which is pretty good given that they're silver eagles. The cheapest, as of now, is $23.79 online. Factor in shipping and such, and I didn't do so badly. I figure I'll buy a few coins whenever I have the cash to do so.

The good thing about buying silver is that, in my opinion, it's not a "waste of money." It's simply moving your money into another form of currency. Now, it may drop, but seeing as silver hasn't gone below $10 in around 4 years, and it kinda has an upwards trend, I figure it's decently safe. And I just plan to "lose" all my money when I buy silver. Just so I don't screw myself if the price tanks. And who knows, maybe the investment will go through. Maybe not. But in the meantime, I'll just keep building up my stash for the reasons mentioned.

So here's what I did today:

Starting a blog! Inspired by Mooshi on EDC forums. Mostly because I'm bored, but I figured I might as well blab. And I always wanted a blog. Because I'm so self centered. Just an EDC update for my first post. (EDC- Every Day Carry.) I figure I"ll do this whenever things change, and maybe in depth review/talk/blabber about some of my EDC items. I'm mainly into knives, but also extend to some other EDC stuff.

I carry everything in my pockets, and add a Camelback if it's necessary. With a camelback, I just carry a larger FAK (first aid kit), spare batteries for my flashlights, maybe a fixed blade if I'm out camping, water, pen, ink, and some stuff for wherever I'm going. But I usually just stick with my pockets.

There. I just laid everything over where I usually carry it. Except for my Seiko 5 watch. Which goes on my wrist. And I wear a necklace around... my neck!

So at the right thigh pockets, I carry my Oakley Half Jackets (I can't believe they made a version 2 already!). Polarized lenses, I forgot what tint. I just throw them in there loose- the wallet doesn't really ding it up at all. My wallet is just two slabs of Toxic Green G10 that I keep together with O-rings. It works pretty well- you just pull the one in the middle all the way to the o ring on the left, and the wallet sort of hinges with the o rings and fans open. I usually carry my Driver's License where the gift card is so that I can just show it without doing anything. But internet and privacy issues.

In the right pocket, I carry a small FAK (neosporin, bandaids, gauze, duct tape, antibiotic wipes, hand santizing wipes, and butterfly bandaids. The last one is for my knife cuts.) Then I also throw in a small knife. I just won a Spyderco Dragonfly in Foliage G10, so I've been carrying that one around.

Left pocket is just my POS cell phone. I kind of regret buying it because it was like $50 for the phone. (I'm not sure what this is called, but basically I buy a phone, and then I can get cash loaded on the account for the phone.) And it is fat. The screen opens up to text, and I rarely text anyways. It's too heavy and thick to be practical, but oh well.

Left thing pocket is either my keychain or the Zebralight. I don't really have keys- car keys goes in my right front pocket. So my keychain just has a house key, a USB, library card thing, and a Preon 0. Lately, since it's summer and I don't need the USB, I've been carrying my Zebralight SC52cw. Amazing flashlight. I'll probably do a post about it later.

And finally, at 4 'o clock, I carry a knife. I don't always carry it for a short drive somewhere, but if I'm going out and expect heavier usage, I carry it. It's one I made last year, a 4" D2 blade with Anso-textured black/OD green G10 handles. Liner lock. It's carried in a self-made kydex sheath that slides onto the belt IWB. And yes, I will post something for all these TLA (three letter acronyms.)

I kind of dread winter now. I'll probably go back to wear jeans... and then oh no. Two pockets. Maybe I'll have to go to my buttpockets, but I'm always afraid I'll squish the thing with my fat. But I added the FAK during the spring.. so I'm not sure how it'll fit. Usually I just collapse everything upwards (so everything on the right side goes in the right pocket and such.) But a FAK and a wallet=problems.

Oh well, there's my first post. Woot woot.