Closure part 3

Last night marks the end of my food club. Mostly older ladies who have been thrilled to have a younger male presence were squirmy that I'm leaving. Some were sad, others looked lonely and lost. I couldn't find the right time to use my secret word but I got lots of teary eyed hugs and even a hand squeeze.

Definitely something that's changed my life since I started going in August. I have two excellent friends that made it an important part of our weekly routine. It changed my perspective on a lot of things and I'm sad I won't be going with them anymore.

Local kine grinds

8 days to go. The goal now is to pack everything and ship. Also to fill up on local food that won't be available en Mass. Musubi from 7-11, saimin, mauna pua, bentos and especially fresh fruit are all being consumed at an unalarming rate. I purchased some food to cover the few meals I'll eat at home but for the most part it's going to be getting what I can while I can.

My new favorite breakfast involves yogurt. Last week it was cereal and yogurt like I had in Sweden. This week it's vanilla yogurt with pineapple & bananas from the farmer's market. Pretty awesome.

I have a few food items to bring to the east coast with me but they'll be gone within a few days or weeks as I share and give them away.

I WANT CHOWDA has been in my lexicon for months now and soon I'll get to use it in earnest. What other delicacies await me in the frigid NE? I'll let you know.

For now, what food do you eat thats specific to where you're from? What do you miss when you are away?

Closure part 2

An ordeal has finally ended. 20 months ago I had my wisdom teeth removed. During that procedure the adjacent tooth's root was broken.

To CYA my surgeon paid for:

• A root canal which could not recover the tooth
• I then had another extraction
• A bone graft of someone else's bone shards and
• Another bone graft of someone else's bone shards
• An implant
• An uncovering
• A failed molding during which the implant was pushed up into my sinus
• A surgery to remove the implant impacted in my sinus.

When the implant made it to my sinus I couldn't form a seal in my mouth. I couldn't use a straw. Breathing vibrated the nerve in the open canal and was very uncomfortable. 

The new surgeon that removed the titanium implant said that the prosthetic tooth is not even necessary because of how much the teeth overlap, so the entire procedure could've been avoided.

My dentist is awesome though and when I went by today to show them the titanium implant I asked for copies of my X-Rays. They didn't know how to export them from the computer so they let me do it. They also gave me chocolate covered short bread cookies. I brought them tangerines.

Closure part 1

I leave HI in 3 weeks. Today serves as a good milestone for the beginning of the end. To help cope with leaving I'll write some cheerful notes about the communities I'll be leaving.

Tonight marks my last 2600 meeting in Hilo. This is a meeting I started over a year ago with a rocky beginning and a successful legacy.

It began with me, lobst4r and Kitten Viscous sitting around talking about data storage. Tonight had 6 of us chatting up a storm. A member from our church comes, a former engineer, it was like play time for him. He brought bricked Linksys routers and he was so excited that everyone was excited about them. When his wife came to get him I said "thanks for letting Jim come out to play!"

I have some awesome friends in this group and it has always been a pleasure to talk with people interested in the same things but with a different approach and perspective. No one else gets excited about neodymium magnets like they do.

There's a 2600 meeting about 1/2 hr from where I'll be in MA, I just hope they're as awesome as the group I'm leaving.

I'm glad the group will continue to meet after I leave.

Priorities

Someone special came to visit for Thanksgiving. It was exactly perfect. Difficult and busy but splendid and refreshing; it was needed. But now, after a week away, I'm back to work and it's taking a little getting used to. Getting the time off was easy, boss didn't even want a reason.
I took a break to go home and put on socks and shoes to cover up my pedicured toesies from the mocking eyes of middle schoolers.

My work friend asked how I enjoyed my vacation. I scoffed, that was no vacay! It was work, it was driving, it was expensive. My primary purpose was to take care of my girl and everything else was secondary. It's something I'd forgotten; to be so preoccupied with someone else.

Rental

We shipped our Suby Fozy yesterday and rented a car to make it to Kona. I returned it this morning. The price with Kama'aina discount came to a cool $40. Add the price of my forgetfulness in filling up the tank and that bottom line bottoms out to a ferocious $107.

The upside is that instead of taking a taxi home for an additional $15 I ran into a friend from church and scored a ride with her. One of the many ways in which Hilo shines.

Google contact

I've been collecting contact methods from Google.

I got a:

• a phone call from them when signing up for Google Apps for Your Domain
• postcard for registering a business on Google Maps
• text message for signing up for Voice
• They even mailed me stickers

Pretty soon we'll go on a date.

Headphone cable

I have a fancy chair thanks to Vincent, it's seriously comfortable but the arm rests like to wrap my headphone cable around itself. It's so frustrating because it likes to tangle itself around the arm rests, wheels and base of the chair. For a while I was clipping the cable to my shirt and that helped a little bit but I don't always wear a shirt (cat sound!) at the computer. Today I had an epiphany and used a small hook to manage the problem. The majority of the cable sits on the other side of the hook creating enough weight to keep the cable retracted on that side instead of pooling around the chair.

'Ohana

Big Island Ohana Cafe. Owned by a father and mother, run by daughter and son. I never knew their names or their nationality. They had vintage signs on the wall and still offered banana splits and malt milk shakes. They were cash only.

When I moved here I ate there a couple three times a week, usually getting bacon cheeseburgers, fries and a drink for me and my boss. The store changed owners and my shift moved to the evening when BIOC was closed so I stopped eating there.

We started going to church and would eat lunch at 'Ohana Cafe every Sunday. Over the summer my hana'i nephew paddled every Saturday morning and we took him there for lunch afterwards.

We went often enough that they let me order off menu. I usually got fish over fried rice with eggs over medium. It was fantastic. Jessie got the same thing every time, which with their accent, was pronounced "Frenche Toast."

They closed 2 weeks ago.

Update:

BigIslandVideoNews.com has video of the corner being torn down. It may have been ugly but I don't see 15 new parking spaces being better than the 'Ohana Cafe.

Tsunami drill

Every month they sound the Tsanmi warning alarms as a test. This month they organized a complete Tsunami drill.

I was unprepared, I didn't bring water or really know what to do. So I set out to keep the kids in line as we made our dry run from the school to the edge of the airport where we waited in the sun for 20 minutes for them to open the gates. We walked with 700 kids across the tarmac of Hilo airport to then sit for 2 hours waiting for a bus ride home.

The kids did not take it seriously, they were rude and didn't follow directions and were plagued with selfish behavior as previously mentioned. In the event of a real Tsunami they might focus a little more because it's serious, but they'd also be under prepared and there would be a lot more chaos around them.

Tsunamis are a very real thing here. There have been serous ones within memory for some members of the community and the kids' families, so it's not like an abstract idea. I wish I knew how to convey the serious nature of this threat and the benefit of being prepared and focused.

The reality is that if a Tsunami hit where we are most vulnerable most of that area would not survive, there isn't enough time or organization to get everyone out.

The price of island life.

Every Day Carry

I was a Scout once. At the time I didn't understand the need to always be prepared because everything was always provided for me. As an adult I have the pleasure of providing for myself and I like to come prepared. A recent post on Reddit motivated me to make a list of my EDC items.

Every day carry means I always have a Leatherperson Micra & Maglite Solitaire on the key chain. This solves the majority of problems I run into.

In my backpack I carry:

• a makeup bag full of screw drivers
• ace wrap, adhesive medical strips and Neosporin
• Leatherperson Core
• notepad
• 3 pens, 1 sharpie
• Aspire One
• snacks
• Swiss army knife
• water bottle
• 4GB USB drive

In my car I have:

• full 1st aid kit
• change of clothes
• swim suit and snorkel gear
• Maglite Mini LED
• D40x

There're lots of resources for Every Day Carry items on EDCForums and EDCItems

Some people enjoy the serendipity of life and just roll with whatever happens and don't like faking control by carrying all this gear with them. I had a discussion once about whether the burden of always carrying everything was too high. In my mind it's not, I enjoy being prepared and I enjoy solving problems. To me the world is a playground, a workshop, and while it's not broken; I certainly enjoy fixing it.

What do you carry everyday?

Lord of the Flies

Lord of the flies might have been a shock when it was written.

After spending the morning with fifteen twelve year old boys I'm surprised we're all still alive.

The strong pick on the weak, the meek follow the strong willed. Everyone wants attention and control but shirks responsibility.

They destroy and cruel. They can't focus.

How are we all still here?

poke

I love poke. My favorite is spicy, it's Sriracha mixed with mayonaise on ahi, but I'll eat almost any kine poke. It keeps my diet rich in fresh fish, some of it caught locally. On gym days I like to eat a large amount of it several hours before, for the protein.

Sometimes I eat an entire pound of poke. Eating a pound of raw fish is sometimes an endurance test. I love raw fish, but still when I'm done my body recoils and it's not sure what just happened. It's a departure from my diet of old especially from the mainland. But I like to enjoy this opportunity while I have it.

Today is gym day, so I stopped at the fish market to pick up an ahi steak but they were sold out. To substitute I grabbed a package of tako, octopus, and I just finished half a pound of that. Again my body isn't sure about such a large amount of octopus with no chaser.

Forester is credit to team

I've been putting extra work and care into my Forester recently. I never imagined I'd drive an SUV, but it fits my needs pretty well. It has AWD, lots of cargo space in the back and the Weather band.

• I just had it detailed. Mind you I don't pay for this, it's a work exchange for computer repair
• I bought new floor mats with red dragons. They look completely rediculous.
• Applied Rain X to all windows and exterior mirrors
• Bought a CD folder for the visor.
• Registered an account on SubaruForester.org and found a way to disabled the seatbelt alarm firing more than once.
• Removed the license plate covers, so now I only advertise for Subaru and not the dealer. Currently looking for awesome replacements.

These are minor things but they make a difference.

Precious

I was reading about secret societies. I came across the Order of the Engineer. They follow a code of ethics regarding engineering. Its purpose is to foster pride and resonsibility in your work. I think it's awesome. It's not a secret society, it's not used to make extra money or get a job. It's about being pono with your work. They get a plain stainless steal ring.

I'm a member of several clubs as outlined in the previous post, none of which have rings or formal introductions. I was lamenting not being a member of any clubs like that when I look at my left hand and saw my wedding ring.

I've tried to talk about this to a couple of friends, neither of whom are married and one of which cannot legally marry. I came across like an asshole I think, pushing my marriage in their face. Now I'm going to try to explain myself here and likely present myself as an asshole to a much larger audience. I feel vulnerable when I'm not wearing my ring and confident when I am. It's a heavy ring, platinum and silver, very comfortable and fits well. It was made by a wonderful and akamai friend as a wedding present. I'm very proud of it. My pride is not meant to be exclusive. I think everyone should be able to marry if they want. I will likely talk about my stance on marriage at another time, this post isn't about that, but about membership in societies.

Jessie and I once had wooden rings we got in Spain. I broke mine catching a Frisbee the week we got back.

A frequent ring I see is the class ring. I never wanted one from high school and I certainly did not want one from my community college.

What groups are you a member that are significant? Do you wear any jewelry that shows your membership?

Chip off the old block

I've been clearing out the house of man that died recently.

The culmination of a lifetime of stuff means what? You can't take it with you and that's a good thing. The best thing is when that stuff finds its way into hands that really need it. I've taken 3 or 4 boxes of office supplies and globes to my school. The principle's eyes lit up and said "this is like Christmas for teachers!" Everywhere, all schools and Hawai'i in particular are having funding troubles, we're hit pretty hard with no funding for supplies. These go a long way.

I packed my car to the gills with model trains and gave it tot he Laupahoehoe Train Musem who's wide eyes and "we can't thank you enough"s were good proof we'd found the right home.

Canes and walkers given to veteran's societies.

I've taken home about 15 Asimov books, 3d glasses, small screw driver sets for computers, 10 Dave Brubeck CDs, an out of print Nichols and May CD.

Short Circuit DVD which I keep trying to convince K will be useful preparation for his Master's program with AI.

It's a strange thing to get to know someone after they died. So many small little hobbies of his overlap with mine and several things on my list of ideas to explore have found their start with things from this man's legacy.

I am doing this pono. By appreciating the things he left behind and giving them new life, not just dropping them at the thrift store it makes me feel good cleaning out his home, his bed room and his life. I can only hope that someone does that same with my stuff when I'm gone.

Introvert, thy name is extrovert.

I have my own time and no one to share it with, so I joined as many clubs as I could find that would have me.

I'm now:

• Along with K, the most truant member of our church; having not missed a day since I've been back.
• A member of a scrabble club that meets every Friday at the mall
• The founder of a small but successful 2600 meeting the 1st Friday of every month
• I go to meetings and walk on Thursdays.
• I have friends outside of work and home.
• I'm getting much closer to finishing my archery target, then I'll be an archer again.

I feel very much like the Yes Man.

tracking

Several months ago before I went on my O'ahu trip I heard something on NPR while shopping for supplies. It was a medical comedy sketch. I enjoyed it but was too focused with the task at hand to complete the listening and find out who it was.

Months later I found motivation to track it down. I emailed Hawai'i Public Radio and they eventually told me it was mostly likely a syndicated show out of Cleveland hosted by Robert Conrad. I found their programming schedule and emailed him for confirmation; it was Nichols and May, a comedy duo. The album I'd heard was called Nichols and May Examine Doctors.

Turns out Nichols also directed the Catch 22 film.

There isn't much to see on Internet about these two, YouTube has a few clips though.

Because of Math

I fill my car with premium. It's more expensive, but less so now than when i was in High School. My senior year gas was $.82, $.92, $1.02 for low, mid and high grade, respectively.

So it was a 24% increase from low to high grade.

A decade later gas prices a have more than tripled. But the difference between low and high grade has remained the same. Now it's $3.05, $3.15, $3.25 again for low, mid and high grade, respectively. But now there's only a 6.5% increase from the low to high.

You should still put in whatever your manual suggests.

Guess

It'll be the longest since the beginning. I'm trying to keep it in perspctive. enjoy the benefits and not focus on that hard stuff. Sure I'm getting a lot of stuff done.

My salt and alcohol intake has increased dramatically. So have my chores, focus and work. That's not the balance I'm willing to keep.

"Why don't you want this product?"

"Because of math"

Mutilation! She loves me again.

People that are really good at what they doing

Ronald Jenkees. I just bought 2 copies of his CD, so he'll sign them.

Danny MacAskill. I did not buy his CD.

Firecrackers.

Ice / Straw

Why can't you drink a beer with a straw or ice?

With any other carbonated drink it's acceptable.

Photography

Sometimes it's the tecnique, playing with a new setting, squeezing the AoF as tight as I can or following some principles.

Other times it's the process, getting me out of the house. It can sublimate cabin fever when it threatens.

Mostly it's the content. Your body of work is never done. It's important to continue to create and explore and express if only for yourself.

It's always a good thing.

I'm just glad I can create something. It doesn't have to be amazing, it just has to be honest. I like showing my pictures here and on Flickr, but the audience is mostly me and mostly unimportant.

Waipi'o

I went camping with the Intermediate school on Thursday. It was an end-of-the-year reward for the kids that got all their work done on time.
My usual approach to school outings is to do whatever the kids do, eat the same food, do the same activities and get just as dirty. This being no exception I opted to walk down the valley with the kids, on a road that is 4wd only for a good reason. So steep that it was often difficult to stop once the momentum had its hold. It's two days later and I'm still sore, I have trouble standing up and sitting down or standing still. It's that bad. It's a beautiful way to spend a Thursday: removing invasive species in a beautiful valley that the Ali'i of old used to live in.


The valley is called Waipi'o because it's a microcosm of the water cycle.

Wai - water
pi'o - arch or curve.

As you can see it's absolutey beautiful. It's a lush tropical rain forest teaming with life.

The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Tell Us Is Possible

Robotanists

Sounds like a pretty good idea. So do it.

Work will set you free

I had a conversation with my brother once about work. He said he liked his work so much, he would go in early and stay late, work weekends, 12 hour days etc. I told him I could never understand that, liking work. At the time I think I was in highschool and my jobs consisted of mowing lawns, digging holes and data entry, so it's easy to understand why I felt that way. What I didn't understand was that it's not just the work that is part of the job. It's the other people, it's the impact, it's the environment.

I've been through a few more jobs since then, most of them had good sides and also bad: cheap/free food, the access to corporate software, the wiring skills I was learned, the cute girl at the lunch counter, the money I was making or the ease of the workload (I started this blog at work).

None of them fulfilled me. I never went to sleep happy and content, usually instead just out of exhaustion or sometimes with the arresting feeling that I'd be stuck doing this job for a very long time.

Now I work at a charter school, 50 students in the High, 25 in the Middle. It's amazing. Kids are like a drug. Being around youth, creativity and the pure joy that kids can have is intoxicating. I have a boss who trusts me and the decisions I make. She fights to make sure I continue to have a job next school year. I have friends that I go the extra mile for and they do the same for me. The people I work with are passionate, caring and willing to try new things. They are fluid. They have a great sense of humor.

Twice a week the middle school has kane (boy) / wahine (girl) day where they take each gender out for a field trip, project or focus group, the other gender stays behind at school. So twice a week I get to see what it's like for them to be alone.

You know who I love most? Middle school girls.

Lulz. No really:

When you put 13 year old boys together they fight, they spit and hit each other. Insults fly out as quickly as the laughing, they're loud. The little boys submit behind the bigger ones. They spend their time trying to look up scantily clad women on Internet and they break things. They're all the bad parts of humans--the aggressive and selfish and destructive energies fueled by the inhibitions of youth; they're assholes.

Putting girls alone means giggling, hula dancing and hair braiding. They look up lol cats on Internet. They're quiet and they help each other. They embody the good forces in the world.

There are, of course, exceptions. There are definitely some laid back and gentle boys and there are some bitchy girls. Most of the time I prefer them mixed. They're a wonderful group that has made my life here several orders of magnitude better.

Now something is different. A place that values me, where I actually make an impact that's not just based on profit. Some days I leave school in a fantastic mood. I roll all the windows down and praise the planet. It's a funny feeling to drive away from work and look forward to going back.

Do Something

Dance, fight, fuck or race.

Passage of time.

There are lots of ways to measure the passage of time: clock, calendars. Sometime an event like Christmas, birthdays or anniversaries. A new car, buying school supplies or meeting a co worker for drinks on Thursdays.

This past weekend we rearranged our network used the last of my 1,000' of cat5 cable running wire for the HTPC.

O'ahu

Last week I went to O'ahu with the middle school. I was frantic leading up to the trip, a week of 12 & 13 year olds! after the first day I fell right into it and had the time of my life. The only written assignment was a reflection on the activities we did, here are a few of my excerpts:

Woke up late again. My tent group was already on their way to the beach which is awesome. We chanted E Ale E* to chant out the sun which generously and magnanimously demonstrated its beauty.
This was prefaced by Auntie Ana encouraging us to observe our surroundings and how the morning can dictate how the day will play out. While her intentions were good and even some of the questions she asked were relevant and purposed, but I felt some of them did not point to any useful knowledge if answered; they were tedium. I don't remember the specifics but I remember feeling frustrated.
After a fantastic meat filled breakfast we went to Lo'i. I'm still unsure if this is an event, a verb, a location or a plant. But it involved removing invasive species so that less invasive species (Ulu) could grow. Ulu gets a fee pass in the hearts and minds here. This process was messy, I ruined brand new shoes, but I don't mind. It was well worth it; mud up to my knees working int he 'aina with our class. Giving them a chance to get dirty, use their energy and be kids. I took tonnes of pictures.
In the afternoon we went to the fish ponds. The event was soured for me by the guide mentioning "plants" after "we are working hard to remove all invasive species," referring to haoles.
My brain replied with "Hawaiians are not a different species" & "I'm not invasive." It also knows it's the same Hawaiians that were around to accept the invasive species originally, probably as a business venture or to solve some problem. No matter what, blaming me is not fair.
My heart hates it. It's unfair to expect that everything is not brown skinned is to blame. I think my sense of fairness is acute, so I will just leave the rest to "I did not like that part."

*E ala E chants in the sun, (La in Hawaiian). It helps focus the day with our group and recognize our surroundings as the paradise it is, not just a world of ipods, computers and pop music. It's about the day, the weather, clouds.

I took just shy of 1,000 pictures, 200 of which are good and usable.

productivity 2

I've done so much that I need to make another post about it. Lucky you.

1. Changed the headlamp in my moped
2. Encrypted the drive in my laptop. This way when it gets stolen they'll only get the hardware, not the data. Really the joke is on them, a 3 year old Inspiron with a wobbly screen is no gem.
3. Installed WinPE 2.0 to a flash drive. This is most useful with computers that have no optical drive, or ones that do but no Windows discs are available; when you need to run chkdsk because the machine won't boot, not even in safe mode. Most netbooks don't have optical drives and my desktop didn't for the first 3 months of its life.
4. I had a bunch of 1GB flash drives, so I created purposes for a coulpe of them for work. I made an office installer for one of them with both Mac and Windows versions of Office. 2nd drive is Lotus Notes installer for both OS flavors. This means instead of 4 CDs and a printed paper with IP address and CD keys, I know carry 2 flash drives. They also install in a fraction of the time.
5. Read World War Z
   
6. The wife drew a picture on the side of my WHS and I' in the process of spray painting it. It'll probably make most color coordinated people vomit but it's fun and I'm trying to do it using only the pain we already have. Pics when it's done.
   
7. This isn't directly related to my video card being gone, but I've started a 2600 meeting in Hilo. First meeting was in October and it wasn't until February that anyone actually showed up, but someone finally did. Now Kevin and I meet with the other regular once a months and show off and talk about different tech stuff. It's fully awesome.
8. Today I got an email from the RMA company saying they've shipped my card and it'll be returning on Monday. So the end of productivity is nigh here.
   

productivity

The video card in my gaming machine was crashing and showing artifacts during POST. It's being RMA'd.

This has stopped me from playing computer games which has let me accomplish all the other chores and projects that've been waiting to get done:

1. Installed uTorrent on my WHS. I have it watch for torrents in whs\public\torrents. I've also set up RSS feeds for the shows I like, the feeds come from feedmytorrents.com. It downloads them all to one dir and then moves them into whs\video\tv\%showname% to make it easy for the wife and the rest of the hosue to find.

I also set up the scheduler in uTorrent to only download and seed at night when everyone else is asleep. uTorrent's scheduler is tedious to configure but works. I tried at first to figure out a way to do with it Task Scheduler in Windows but hade a very difficult time and scratched that idea.

2. RMA'd a bad stick of memory back to G. Skill. I don't really like evanagalizing products but now I will. G. Skill offers everything I like: the memory is good quality, cheap, comes with a lifetime warranty and they have an easy RMA process.

3. I filed my taxes. It's depressing to see how much money I've made compared to how much I have, but it's exciting to think how much I'll get back. No matter what, it has to be done and I don't mind paying taxes. But I recognize the need and the corrolation between the taxes I pay and the services I use and I often feel that I get more than I pay for. I appreciate the roads, the schools, the police and the EMTs. I just wish more of my taxes went to them than to war.

4. Laundry! Yes! I've done 4 loads this week.

5. Hollowed out a book. The next best thing to do with a book after reading or burning is to gut it.

6. Cleaned up the htpc menus. fixed some error messages and added the photos from WHS.

7. Spending more time with my wife. Always a good idea.

What have you been up to?

My sack

I had to leave my wife's backpack in RVA over thanksgiving, trading for a $10 pack with a bigger central pocket from my dad. It was terrible and smelled like cigars.

I was looking for a new backpack. It needs to carry one laptop, DSLR, water bottle and additional space for misc stuff / books / sketch pad / food. If there are two slots for laptops that would be grand but I recognize that's a niche need and can live without it. When I travel I take a backpack with laptop and travel amenities and a seperate bag for camera and that's a hassle. If I can combine them into one pack it would make everythign easier. I also drive a moped so transporting all my gear in one pack would be a fantastic boone.

I was briefly interested in military backpacks, I figure the military could offer something rugged and they use laptops from time to time, right? I was able to find ALICE and MOLLE style packs locally but they were more oriented to camping than tech, no surprise there. No dice on the ILBE in town. Ruling out the military line puts me in the prosumer grade equpment.

1. The leader has been this Tenba Gen3 for $172. 
2. The Tamrac 5549 is in second but it looks like the camera section is camera only, when I'm not carrying the camera I'd like to be able to utilize that space for somethgn else.
3. Finally the LowePro CompuRover for $250. This is really geared toward professional photographers, it has a mount for a full size tripod.

After I purchased a friend suggested a first responder pack aimed at Fire and EMS. This would be a good option but for the price.

The winner is the Synergy. The price is right, and it has lots of space inside. Two main compartments, the main also having a padded area for laptop. Six pockets accessible from the outside and another two inside along with a few mesh pockets. It has a place for cards which I put my new business cards in it feels like it was actually designed by an engineer, as though they wanted to make a quality item.

I only have a few complaints and if I had design control I would've probably removed one or two pockets but it's not too bad. There is no place to put pens; I like to carry a pen and sharpie but there is no specific place fo these, I fit them into the pocket knife section. The chest strap is non removable, so either you use it or it flaps annoyingly and gets caught.

Now I need to make some protective fittings for the DSLR but there's plenty of space for it and I enjoy crafts.

Things that smell better than they taste

• marijuana
  
• perfume
  
• gasoline
  
• markers