Home Server 2023: RAM and Storage Upgrades

I suppose this was all planned, however I didn’t really expect it to come up so quickly. Such is life when you come across some sweet deals though! I ended up adding a 16GB kit of DDR4 bringing my RAM to 32GB which should give me some room for more VMs/containers when it comes up, but more importantly, more room for 4K transcode cache. It’s still undecided if this makes a big difference, but updating the MediaStack container to 16GB of available memory lets me map about half of that to a transcode directory. All in the RAM came to under $50 shipped.

22TB for less than $400? I regret not getting two!

The other upgrade added was 22TB of spinning disk storage courtesy of Western Digital. I grabbed one of the 22TB Western Digital My Books for a ridiculously cheap $360 shipped due to a coupon stacking error. After verifying the drive was functional I shucked it and ended up with a 22TB white label enterprise class 7200RPM helium-filled drive. It found it’s way very quickly into the server and after a bit of fiddling around was mounted and accessible. My only issue was how do I present two drives to Plex at the same time in a seamless way? Mapping libraries in different drives is a pain, and the wait time for a fresh file being copied from the SSD to the HDD isn’t a solid user experience. On top of that copies could introduce I/O overhead, possibly leading to stuttering, again, another user experience no-go. I decided to go with MergerFS.

MergerFS is a union file system that can present multiple mounts as a single mount point to software. It handles writing data to different drives in different methods. In my case, I’ve got it setup to present both the SSD and the HDD as a single mount point, and MergerFS writes all data to it’s “first found” drive. With my configuration First Found is the SSD. I setup a cron job that runs daily at 5AM to move files older than 14 days off the SSD and onto the HDD, then cleans up empty directories. This should accomplish a few things:

  • New content is downloaded and served off fast storage.

  • Content being downloaded while content is being streamed should have minimal impact to the streaming experience due to the high IOPS of an SSD.

  • Older content is moved automatically during low/no use times to ensure no user experience impact.

  • The SSD is regularly cleaned keeping storage usage there to a minimum, allowing me to use it for other things like serving up my Lightroom back catalog over the network.

  • A single disk loss doesn’t mean all data on the other disks is lost. This is better than a JBOD but not as good as RAID, which is perfectly fine for a media server.

So far this has been working great. Initial copy of back catalog content saw an average write speed just over 200mb/s, which is awesome for a spinning disk. Content streamed from the spinning disk is served relatively quick with no noticeable user impact. The move script has been executing daily without issue as well. Looking forward to seeing how long it takes to chew through this much space!

Home Server 2023: VPN

My home network has some pretty sweet features! It’s got my files, my services, whole home ad-blocking, and DNS over HTTPS. I love these features when I’m at home, so why not get them while I’m out too? I accomplished all this with Cloudflare DNS and PiVPN.

PiVPN and Wireguard - a lightweight, easy to configure setup!

PiVPN is a script for setting up a lightweight, hardened and automatically updating VPN environment on either OpenVPN or Wireguard. It’s designed to be run on a Raspberry Pi and PiOS, but since it’s basically just Debian I ended up using it and throwing it onto an unprivileged Debian container. I used Wireguard since it’s lightweight and easy to setup, and went through the install really quickly with the below command:

curl -L https://install.pivpn.io | bash

I followed the prompts on screen to setup and configure for Wireguard, included my URL for VPN access, and kept most of the rest as defaults. Once I finished that I grabbed a Cloudflare DDNS updater script:

git clone https://github.com/K0p1-Git/cloudflare-ddns-updater.git

Configured it quickly with my URL and API key, then setup a cron job to run every 5 minutes.

I added a config file to PiVPN for my iPhone, installed the app, scanned the QR code, and configured the VPN to connect automatically whenever not connected to my home WiFi SSID. The result? Seamless VPN connectivity when I’m away from home and an experience that’s just like I’m on my home network - DNS based ad-blocking, DNS over HTTPS, and access to all my local services! Speeds are basically line speed - Easily up to 1gbps. I setup configs for my iPad and Macbook as well, so they’re ready to go when I am. Overall this was an incredibly easy setup and the benefits are astounding. The fact that it “just works” as well is great and really drives home the user experience focus of what I strive to achieve with my home network.

Home Server 2023: Photo Backups

I’ve got a good terabyte of RAW photos I’m sitting on. They’ve had various homes throughout the years, from spinning disks, to SATA SSDs, to most recently a 2TB Samsung T5 USB SSD. I discussed my photo workflow a bit in this post here, but I didn’t detail how I kept these images backed up. For the longest while I’ve been relying on Amazon cloud photos running on my desktop to keep things synced to an online source, and with unlimited RAW storage for Prime members, it was a no-brainer. With the move over to the Macbook Pro and my storage sitting on a non-internal drive, I haven’t been running that. So I want to get started again on the backups now that I have the home server up and running, and I’m going to be trying to follow the 3-2-1 rule for data backups of my Lightroom classic catalog:

The basis here is you should create three separate copies of your data - A working copy, and two backups, with one of those backups located off site. I’ll be doing things slightly differently but still keeping things in the spirit of the rule:

  • My working copy will stay on the Samsung T5 portable SSD

  • I’ll be storing two backups on the home server, one to the 4TB SSD, and a copy from that made on the soon to be had 22TB Western Digital hard drive that will be in within a week or two.

  • I’ll be doing a daily backup from the server to a cloud storage provider like Backblaze or Wasabi.

For the Macbook to home server backups, I’ve created an unprivileged Debian container running Samba, and threw a mount point onto the 4TB SSD. I’ve also built a shell script to rclone the RAW file directory to the Samba share if my Macbook is A: docked and B: has the external SSD attached. The shell script is also setup to push a notification to me via Pushover on a successful backup with the details of the backup included:

function push {
    curl -s -F "token=APPTOKENHERE" \
    -F "user=USERTOKENHERE" \
    -F "title=Photo Library Backup Notification" \
    -F "message=$1" https://api.pushover.net/1/messages.json
}

MOUNTCHECK=$(df | awk '' | grep "/Volumes/External SSD")
ETHERNETCHECK=$(networksetup -listallhardwareports | grep "Thunderbolt Ethernet Slot 2")
TIMESTAMP=`date "+%Y/%m/%d %H:%M:%S"`
if [[ -z $MOUNTCHECK || -z $ETHERNETCHECK ]]; then
    echo "$TIMESTAMP INFO : One or more dependencies not available, not attempting backup." >> /path/to/log.txt 2>&1
    if [[ -z $MOUNTCHECK ]]; then
        echo "$TIMESTAMP INFO : The SSD is not mounted to /Volumes/External SSD." >> /path/to/log.txt 2>&1
    fi
    if [[ -z $ETHERNETCHECK ]]; then
        echo "$TIMESTAMP INFO : The computer is not docked." >> /path/to/log.txt 2>&1
    fi
    exit
else
    echo "$TIMESTAMP INFO : Depdendencies available, backing up photos to SMB share..." >> /path/to/log.txt 2>&1
    rclone copy --local-no-set-modtime --log-file=/path/to/log.txt 2>&1 --log-level INFO "/Volumes/External SSD/LightRoomPhotos" "photos:photos"
    OUT=$(tail -n 6 /path/to/log.txt | tr -s '[:blank:]' | tr "\t" " " )
    push "$OUT"
    exit
fi

I can pretty easily get this running daily at 2AM or whenever I decide it’ll be running by using launchd on MacOS. Considering I really only have this drive connected when I’m ingesting content from Creative Cloud into Lightroom Classic, I can just be sure to leave it connected overnight the day I do and the backup should happen. Logging is also setup so I can review as necessary.

Once it hits my Samba share, I’ll have a cron job on the Debian container running daily to rclone the directory over to the 22TB drive, and also schedule a currently undecided backup solution to run a backup on the SSD data to sync up to either Wasabi or Backblaze B2. I’m considering Restic for my backup option here, but will be exploring the options available before jumping.

Overall I think this will give me an advantage of being able to work off relatively fast local storage when I need to touch my Lightroom back catalog, while also maintaining a number of backups on my server and on the cloud. I’m also not tied to a network drive for working off my Lightroom back catalog in this case too!

It was a lot of fun learning more about zsh, how to use the Pushover API via curl, and getting all these little things working like rclone and Samba. It’s been a while since I dug in deep with this at home and it’s refreshing, and I really needed the refresher too!

Home Server 2023: DNS Infrastructure

It’s been a while since posting anything overly technical, so I figured I’d drop a couple posts over the next few weeks about the new addition to the basement, a home server.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a home server, but dabbling in HomeAssistant desires to cut down on our streaming services led me back down the rabbit hole of building an all in one box for home use. I was able to snag an HP Elite Desk 800 G3 Small Form Factor about a month ago for $360 shipped with the below specs:

  • Intel Core i7 7700

  • 16GB DDR4

  • 256GB SSD

I ditched the 256GB SATA SSD and threw in a 512GB NVMe drive along with a 4TB Samsung 870 EVO SATA drive that we picked up for very little money, and threw Proxmox on it. The rest has been a lot of fun figuring out various technologies and working to build something that “just works”. My first fun project was redundant whole home ad-blocking with a few pi-hole instances! I run one in a Debian container on the Proxmox host itself and the other is running on my Raspberry Pi 3b+ that was previously used for my Home Assistant install.

The above diagram is a quick overview of how the install works currently. Some notes:

  • All Docker containers are running on non-root UIDs and GIDs.

  • Diun and the Docker Socket Proxy are on their own network, and the proxy is only exposing the required parts of the socket to Diun.

  • Diun notifies of image updates by throwing a notification to Discord every Monday at 10AM.

  • The primary and secondary Pi-holes are setup with Gravity Sync to ensure allow and block lists along with local DNS is kept in sync between the two nodes.

  • Duplicati is backing up the config directories for the containers on host daily to OneDrive.

  • Locally on the primary Pi-hole container a cron job is run to update the allow list daily for URLs that are known to be safe.

  • The Pi-Holes are subscribed to a number of block lists to ensure a wide swath of trackers, malicious content providers, ads, and suspicious content is blocked.

The whole thing is very easy to tear down and spin up quickly, and updates are all completed with a quick docker compose pull && docker compose up -d. I can update on a per-node basis too, staggering things to ensure there’s no ill effects.

A couple of things I want to switch out though:

  • I want to replace Duplicati with Restic or something similar running on the hosts. I’ve read some horror stories of Duplicati restores.

  • I’d also like to do daily backups to OneDrive and monthly backups to Backblaze B2 or Wasabi, once I get that up and running for my photo backups.

  • I’ve recently moved to Pushover for push notifications, so I’d also like to move from Discord to Pushover for my Diun notifications. It’s fairly trivial to tie Pushover into shell scripts as well (I’ll detail this in a future post), so any job running that’s deemed important I’d like to integrate push notifications into.

Overall so far I’ve been pretty happy with the performance of the Pi-hole stacks and getting more familiar with Docker has shown me just how powerful the platform can be for building out solutions quickly. It’s also great to get user feedback when they start noticing there’s no more ads in their Android games!


Post Trip Report: Onebag to Halifax

We did 4 days 3 nights in Halifax. Now that we’ve moved to New Brunswick, this really wasn’t a huge trip, but I still had a lot of fun planning out a packing list and a capsule wardrobe for the it!

The eternal struggle of getting a good photo at Peggy’s Cove. We did beat the tour bus convoy though!

We were pretty lucky with some reasonable weather the whole time, mostly sunny, low teens for temperature, little wind. Our transportation there and back was the bus, and our main purpose of the trip was to drop my wife’s parents off at the airport for their trip back to India. This go around I wanted to concentrate on a smaller pack (20L) and also test out a capsule wardrobe from a new favourite brand, Ministry of Supply. We kept is pretty casual, with mostly city based activities (A lot of restaurants and bars!) along with a trip to Peggy’s Cove for the Wife’s parents.

A not-so-visually-pleasing photo of the 20L classic in our Airbnb. Bellroy replaced my Charcoal model with the black option when I noticed some fraying on the strap - No complaints on the colorway!

For a packing list I tried to streamline while giving myself a number of options for different looks over four days, targeting a slightly more dressed up look than I normally go for. My bag of choice was my Bellroy Classic Backpack coming in at 20L, and everything fit comfortably. For clothing, I went with below, most stuffed into a Peak Design medium packing cube:

Monochromatic! Not pictured here is the shoes and jackets.

2x Ministry of Supply Composite Merino Tees, Heathered Grey - 1 worn, 1 packed. Although these are only 15% merino they’re pretty anti-stink for me, and 2 was plenty for rotation over the few days we were away. Overall they’re durable due to the high poly content, dry quickly, and fit well. Great base layer.

Ministry of Supply Apollo Button Down, White - Packed. This was an awesome layering option and looked very smart on it’s own or with a pullover on top. Can be worn buttoned or unbuttoned over a tee.

Ministry of Supply Atlas Crew Neck Pullover, Grey - Worn. This was a great warm layer that has some visually interesting details on the shoulders. Mostly merino it provided a good bit of thermal regulation and worked great over a shirt or under a jacket.

Ministry of Supply Kinetic Joggers, Black - Packed. Stylish looking, great stretch, provided a slightly more formal option for dining at nicer spots. I really could have cut these in favor of the 5 pockets exclusively, but it was nice to switch up for a few spots.

Ministry of Supply Kinetic 5 Pocket Twill, Heathered Black - Worn. Basically a superlight alternative to five pocket jeans. Great stretch, love the waistband drawstring internally, and they fit really nicely after getting them further tapered. I find they have a bit of a blue hue to them, so I may favor my Lululemon ABC skinnies over them, but these look a lot more put together.

2x Smartwool No Show Socks, Black - Packed. Could have cut one of these. These are pretty standard, great fit, don’t see them over the shoe, and they’re fairly anti-stink.

Smartwool Crew Sock, Black - Worn. VIP. Really could have done just a second pair of these if I didn’t pack the joggers. I wore these most days and after hanging for the night they drop most of their smells.

4x Saxx Quest 2.0 Boxer Brief, 2 Grey 2 Black - 1 worn, 3 packed. I had enough space to change underwear everyday so I went for it. If I was travelling longer these dry quick after a sink wash and fit great, so 4 total is plenty for indefinite travel.

2x Uniqlo Airism Boxers, Black - Packed. I could have dropped one of these. They’re my preferred sleep boxers when travelling as they weigh nothing, take up no space, and dry incredibly quickly. Being used exclusively for sleep I find I can get a few nights out of a pair.

Uniqlo Ultralight Down Jacket, Black - Packed. Reliable layering option, packs into a pocket inside it, and is very warm for it’s size. Perfect for the weather we had while in Halifax.

Patagonia Torrentshell 3L, Black - Packed. We didn’t expect any rain, but this is a reliable windbreaker and due to it’s waterproofing makes for a great layer in which to further insulate. Worn at Peggy’s Cove, but otherwise packed.

Ponto The Pacific Shoe, Black - Worn. Hybrid between a sneaker and a dress shoe. They were probably just a bit too dressy for the whole trip, but they wore well, walked well, and looked very sharp paired with the joggers or the 5 pocket pants. I’d probably replace these with something a hair more casual like an Ecco street tray shoe or the likes if I was to do the trip again. Didn’t have an opportunity to test the water resistance.

My toiletries haven’t changed much since last time, I’m still using a Matador Flatpak waterproof toiletry case with the roll top. Inside it I packed a few different things though.

Really distilled down to a functional collection. Not pictured is the toothbrush case, though I’d probably just throw a head cover on it.

Philips One Toothbrush - A bit bigger than my old folding brush but worth it for a nicer feeling clean.

Lush Dirty Toothy Tabs in Nalgene container - Standard solid toothpaste for me. Not overly minty, and I can carry a ton of them.

Various OTC meds in a Nalgene container - Ibuprofen, antihistamine, anti-nauseant. Standard stuff as a just-in-case.

Folding Brush - Same one I bought years ago in Japan, been working awesome.

Native Deodorant - I love the smell of the eucalyptus mint. Wish I could find a smaller one.

Unscented Company Solid Shampoo and Conditioner in a Matador Flatpak Soap Bar Case - Still a wonderful little product for holding bar soap. The unscented company stuff works great for body wash AND shampoo, but if I was going on a longer trip I’d likely pack a bar soap from them too. Very happy with their products.

Beauty cloth - Unbranded. Just a grey exfoliating nylon cloth, similar to a loofah but unwrapped. I use these at home all the time now, they lather well, exfoliate nicely, and dry very quick due to being a loosely weaved nylon.

For tech and extras, I had to lug along a few things. Most of this was stored in my Bellroy Lite Sling which kinda doubled as a tech bag/day bag. It was big enough to hold my camera, a jacket, a packed Matador tote bag, and my battery.

A selection of the stuff below. The Bellroy Lite Sling was really functional for city walking.

Fuji X100V - Just the camera, no extra lenses. Haoge lens hood for no lens cap and a Peak Design wrist strap.

iPad Mini 6 w/ Smart Cover and Apple Pencil 2 - I replaced my iPad Pro with this a month and a bit ago. Phone was too small to read on, iPad Pro was a bit too big for cramped transit like the bus or economy plane seats. The Pro was also hard to use one-handed. This was the perfect in-between and I’ve been loving it. I read on the bus ride and used this for importing photos/editing on Lightroom.

Tom Bihn Ghost Whale Small w/ charging goods - This contained a Mophie 6000mah universal battery, a 30w Anker Powerport Atom III Slim charger, a 3ft USB-C to USB-C cable, a 3ft USB-C to Lightning cable, and both a Lightning and USB-C card reader from Apple. Coupled with the Incharge X on my keychain I can charge the battery and two devices overnight. I still don’t know if the Ghost Whale is the right pouch for this stuff, but it’ll do for now. This little pack has been shifting between my various bags over the past few weeks.

Airpods Pro - The ongoing standard. Pretty much flawless, easy to pop in and out, great for short listening sessions. Connects to my two devices without issue, seamlessly.

iPhone 12 with Apple MagSafe Wallet - Still happy with this. Sometimes I do wish I had the longer lens from the Pro, for short trips like this I could almost drop my camera then. I’ve removed my case and switched my wallet for the black version. If Apple does come through with USB-C on the next iPhone I’ll upgrade then. Debit card, credit card, ID.

Keys - Wonder what these are for? I have an Airtag fob on them and an InchargeX from RollingSquare.

Packtowl - I’ve had this guy for a while. I want to switch out for a Matador towel, but that’s not at all important. I didn’t need this as the Airbnb had towels.

Vapur water bottle - Still awesome, used this everyday in the Airbnb.

Tom Bihn Wool Utility Cloth - It’s a wool cloth! It’s a 25” square of wool! I used it mostly as a neck wrap, but you can use it for anything - Seat cover, impromptu single person table cloth, camera wrap, bandana, etc.

What Worked?

I loved everything I brought from Ministry of Supply. Overall the stuff is well suited to my body size, with anything in their XS size hitting perfectly. I was also over the moon about my charging setup, being able to plug my phone and my wife’s phone in at the same time was great. I felt like I brought the right selection of tops to keep things looking visually interesting, so I’m pretty happy there too.

What didn’t work?

If I was to approach again, I’d have just worn a single pair of chinos and left the joggers and five pockets at home. I recently took delivery of a pair of Pace chinos from Ministry of Supply and I can’t wait to try them out over an evening or two. I feel they would give me the best in-between mix of casual and dressed up.

I could have also dropped a pair of no-show socks and a pair of sleep boxers. With such a short trip what I had was plenty. Dropping both no-shows for another pair of crews would have been an option with just the chinos on hand too.

I really didn’t need the packtowl, but it didn’t take up much space so no issues there.

Constantly learning. Our next trip looks to be something a week long overseas in December, so I’m looking forward to curating a packing list for that. Stay tuned for another post!

MagSafe Wallet Update

I switched out my Baltic Blue MagSafe wallet for a newer one in Midnight.

Apple made some changes to AppleCare this year which means unlimited accidental damage claims per year. I figured that was incentive enough to try out going naked on a phone again after a number of years. With a lot of my wardrobe transitioning to more monotone pieces I wanted a wallet to match. The new wallet was gifted to me as a late birthday gift, and it’s been… Exactly like the old one. Which is to say, incredibly functional and holds all my required cards.

They did add a new feature with this one however that lets you sync the device to Find My. Though it doesn’t actively track the wallet it will notify you when you removed it and where you last left it. I do wish they could have snuck an AirTag into these, but that adds a shelf life to an object we generally don’t think of having an expiry date. They were kind enough to add a function when the wallet is placed on another MagSafe capable phone it’ll display contact info, which I suppose is fine in a lost and found scenario.

The naked iPhone experience has been great so far, other than the back being incredibly glossy, which means incredibly slippery. I’ve got a dbrand matte black skin without the logo cutout on the way, and I’m looking forward to that adding a bit more grip. I don’t plan on installing the sides or the camera bump portions of the skin, just the glass back which is the biggest offender. I did miss not using a case, the last time I would have done that would have been before discovering the Pixel fabric case for the Pixel 3. A lot of time and effort goes into designing these devices to be used as is, and with a lot of the materials in them becoming more and more resistant to wear and tear it only makes sense to embrace the device as is.

Philips One Toothbrush

I picked up a new toothbrush.

I’ve been using Colgate 360s at home for the better part of 5 years or so, and prior to that I was using an Oral B 5000 which I absolutely loved. I’ve been hesitant to jump on an electric brush again due to the price points, however with companies like Quip and Philips coming out with more affordable and minimal options I was incentivized to try one again.

The Philips one comes in two different styles, either a AAA replaceable battery version or the version I opted for, the rechargeable one. They also come in a number of colors, however I decided to keep it simple and go with black.

Likes:

  • “Quad pacer” timer. I didn’t realize how much I missed having a 30 second timer on my toothbrush. It keeps me on track for brushing for the recommended 2 minutes.

  • Slim and agile. Much smaller than my old Oral B 5000.

  • Small, tapered head. Easy to navigate around the mouth.

  • USB Type-C charging. Everything should support type-c charging.

  • 30 day battery life. Plenty between charges.

  • Regular toothbrush when the battery is dead. Unlike the Oral B brushes I find the brush head shape better facilitates brushing without the battery charged.

Dislikes:

  • The Type-C charging is not C to C compliant. It needs an A to C cable which is a bit annoying, but I have one on my keychain regularly so not the end of the world if I’m travelling with it and it dies.

  • Micro vibrations aren’t as strong as a real mechanical brush, but still better than a manual brush.

  • The “hinge” on the travel case and the battery door are just thin plastic, so time will tell how well it holds up.

Overall I’ve been happy with the new brush, and I’m hoping the brush travels as well as it’s been working for me here at home.

Dongle Life

Docks and dongles and cables and adapters and… Well, there’s a lot of options on the market. I’ve got a couple requirements in addition to the ports provided by the new 14” MacBook Pro, and some things to make tech travel a bit more flexible.

I wiped this down, and moments later… Still more dust.

The Workstation

The Macbook is a workstation replacement, and as such is spending a lot of it’s time connected to my Dell 49” super ultra wide. It’s currently connected via a single USB-C cable offering power and video, and that’s fine for the apartment as we’re fully wireless and I really have no desk room for additional things like speakers, etc. In the house however, we’ll be wiring for ethernet and I’ll have the desk room for speakers again! I’m looking at a single cable solution with all the right ports.

The Wants:

  • Front and rear 3.5mm audio jacks

  • Minimum 2 thunderbolt ports

  • Thunderbolt ports on the rear of the dock only

  • PCIe based ethernet

  • Silver colour

  • Lower price point preferred

I went through a lot of research on dock options from the very top end to the very bottom of the barrel, and I’ve found one that seems to stand out above the rest for my wants. The ethernet controller and connection can be a bit hard to find, however this blog did a lot of the work categorizing them, and it made it very easy to figure out the right option for me.

And the winner is… The Belkin Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock HD. It hits all the above points and comes in at a very attractive price point on the secondary market. One could argue that it would be nice to have additional type C USB ports, or a built in SD card reader, but in reality I connect very little to my computer as is, and I can utilize either the SD card reader on the Macbook or one of the other USB options I have kicking around.

For the time being this will give me fast and reliable gigabit ethernet, 3.5mm audio, a headset jack in the front just in case, and the option to leave my Samsung T5 connected while docked, all from a single cable. I was able to scoop one on eBay for around $100 shipped, which is a wild price compared to the $349 MSRP. It does have a few markings due to previous use, but nothing astoundingly bad. I’m pretty happy with it, though I suppose it’d be nice to have a bit of a longer Thunderbolt cable - Nothing I can’t buy later though.

On The Go

I’ve been overhauling the dongle/accessory kit for on-the-go as well. This kit should cover all use cases I could have for mobile work on the go, and be cross compatible between the iPad and the MacBook. USB type C makes this fairly flexible, but like with Thunderbolt, there’s so many bad options on the market. The purpose of the travel/on-the-go accessories are to make sure I can do just about anything I need to while out and about, and also take up minimal space.

The Wants:

  • Flexibility across multiple devices

  • First party dongles where possible

  • Cover all possible scenarios in a small package

These are the pieces below I’ve picked out so far:

The Audio Kit

This one is straight forward and replaced the lightning EarPods in my camera bag.

A big ol’ nest. These actually live in an old Etymotic soft case, with the adapters separated inside the case.

  • Apple USB-C to 3.5mm adapter

  • Apple Lightning to 3.5mm adapter

  • Apple 3.5mm EarPods

These are realistically a stop-gap emergency kind of thing in case whatever wireless headphones I have at the time are dead and I really need audio. They sound generally agreeable but lack any isolation. I may consider a swap for a set of Etymotic HF3s instead of the Earpods, or re-appropriating my Apple in ear IEMs from my partner, but the adapters will allow whatever headphones are connected to work across all three of my devices.

The Data Kit

This one covers all data options from video to internet to file transfer. I have no reason to believe my on-the-go use will require using these ports more than sparingly, but I’d still like high quality, functional pieces.

  • Apple USB Type-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter

  • Apple USB Type-C to SD card reader

  • Apple Lightning to SD card reader

  • DLink DUB-E250 2.5Gbe USB Type-C to 2.5 gigabit ethernet adapter

I had a Plugable 7-in-1 hub which was fine, but these pieces offer a much higher quality, lighter experience than a cheaper all-in-one unit. The SD card readers function flawlessly, the digital AV multiport adapter does 4K 60fps with HDR support off the HDMI port, and the USB type-A port nets me full speeds off my real fast 64gb Lexar P20 flash drive (200+mbps reads/writes). The DLink adapter was chosen for it’s 2.5gb/s support, and it also has an NCM driver in MacOS, which offloads the processing from CPU to the adapter itself. Although the Macbook isn’t a slouch, seeing a full core’s worth of processing power consumed by a big data transfer is a bit silly. These pieces look great, feel great, and work great.

The Charging Kit

My Baseus GAN charger is actually great here, but the 65w max and only two type C ports is a bit of a drag if I want to charge everything at once and fast. I want to try to remove as much cabling as I can, so a higher wattage type-c only adapter and a few better cables are on the horizon for sure.

It’s about half the size of the 96w Apple charger

  • Satechi 108w 3 port GAN charger

  • Anker Powerline iii Flow 6ft Type-C to Type-C cable

The Satechi is a relatively new charger that’s compact thanks to GAN technology and offers 3 type-C ports and no type-A ports. It supports a charging output of 58w+30w+20w when fully loaded, which coincidentally is plenty for a Macbook, iPad Pro, and iPhone all at once. This should let me drop all my Type-A cables from my kit other than my InCharge X, which is awesome. I’ve swapped my 60w Anker 6ft cable with an Anker Powerline iii Flow cable, which should let me take advantage of 100w fast charging on the Macbook when nothing else is in use. I may end up swapping my other cables for Powerline iii Flow cables as well, depending on how this one works out.

I have no doubt there’ll be more doodads and dongles to fill my pockets and pouches with in the future, but for now this is a pretty comfortable collection. Now, if only I could find a tech pouch that fits the bill a bit better…Stay tuned for that I guess.

IPad Pro 2020 11”

The opening below was written in late August, 2021, and I’ve subsequently revisited this post and finished it… Whoops!

I sit in the dark at the dining room table. My fiancée is out for a few days. The window to my right is the city of Toronto, fleetingly backlit by lightning strikes beyond it’s reach. I’m nursing a hazy IPA and a few olives. The iPad Pro provides a soft glow, I’m browsing YouTube and typing out this. Why here? Why not the computer in the office? Or YouTube on the TV in the living room? Well, it’s because the iPad Pro is fun to use, and I can be wherever I want to be using it, and tonight, that’s enjoying this thunderstorm by the dining room window.

A morning with the Pro, featuring the Smart Keyboard folio.

The Preamble

I’ve had the iPad Pro 2020 11” since late 2020. I grabbed the 256GB model in silver as a “let’s see how it works vs the Surface Pro” and ended up quickly selling the Surface Pro afterwards. It’s been a secondary computing device since then, and it’s been pretty flawless.

The Notes

  • It’s fast, like real fast. This thing edits photos as fast as my desktop did, and that thing isn’t a slouch. Even with the M1 version being released I don’t think there are going to be any worries about slowness for a few years.

  • The screen is excellent. Super bright, great contrast, and awesome color accuracy. I like True Tone a lot and it works well. I’m a big fan of the variable refresh rate all the way up to 120hz, which makes games really smooth.

  • iPadOS 14/15 made the iPad considerably less limited than my last experience with an iPad mini. Some nice usability features like being able to directly import into Lightroom from an SD card further blur the lines between iOS and a full desktop OS.

  • Multitasking has improved but could still be better. I’d love to see actual windowed options, but that’d completely cannibalize the Mac lineup.

  • USB-C all the things. If only Apple got the note regarding the iPhone. Fast charging via PD spec is a very nice include, and being able to share dongles/accessories between the MacBook and the iPad is awesome.

  • The speakers are pretty damn good for a little 11” tablet. Makes for a nice impromptu speaker vs carrying a bluetooth one.

  • It’s flexible. Most days it might be an eReader, but if I’m packing light, it can be my full on computer - It’ll handle just about anything I throw at it. Entertainment in the evenings, reading on the plane, photo editing, day planning, blogging, journaling, marking up maps, etc.

  • Whereas the Surface Pro was more of a computer that could be a tablet, this is a tablet that can be a computer. Both aren’t really amazing at their secondary function, but the iPad gets a lot closer.

  • The battery life is an all day affair, provided I’m not pushing it too hard. Screen brightness and task at hand definitely affects things, but with mixed all day usage I’m probably not looking for a charger until bed time.

  • The magic keyboard, although flawed, is probably the best keyboard option for the thing. The typing experience is very similar to the Macbook and it holds the device incredibly well. Although it does increase the weight and size a fair bit, I wouldn’t use any other option on the market if need a keyboard.

  • I wish I used the pencil more. I think this is more of a discipline thing, but it’s one of the best drawing and writing experiences I’ve had on a device ever, and I might use it on the occasion. There’s a lot of good notebook apps that I’ve been playing with like notability and goodnotes, and of course I have apps like procreate and charcoal, but I tend to find myself leaning toward OneNote, Google Keep, or Apple Notes rather than a hand written option. The markup feature for PDFs though has been an absolute godsend for all the paperwork we needed to do for the house.

  • There’s still a few meh points with the app ecosystem. I’m missing features in Photoshop, and the iPadOS versions of the office suite are really not that good compared to the full fat versions on MacOS and Windows. Otherwise software like OneNote works great, for example, and there’s normally an app for what I need to get done.

Overall this device has been a great companion since I picked it up. The fact that I don’t feel like I want more of a device too speaks to the software and hardware inside the device. With sidecar it becomes a great secondary screen while on the go too, the perfect companion to a 14” display. Universal Control will be coming out in the next iPadOS/Monterey release, so I anticipate the iPad is going to get even more use at that point - Getting to just do something on the Macbook then drag and drop it over to the iPad directly to work on it further is going to be really nice.

I’m very happy this was my entry back into the world of iPads. The iPad mini I had a few years ago, although good as a basic device, was really missing the polish that was brought with iPadOS14/15. I can honestly say with the updates made to file management, direct import into Lightroom, growing pro app catalog, and class leading hardware, the iPad fits very easily into my workflows as a jack of all trades, and master of a few.

Home Office + Mac Apps

I’m really going to try to post more here, if only to feel like I’m accomplishing something.

My fiancée and I purchased a home back in New Brunswick and will be relocating around the end of March. I’m really excited to get back home, and get to a living space that’s not only much larger than the apartments I’ve been bumming around in for the past years, but also a place that’s my own. I’ll leave out the details, but it’s a two story, 5 bedroom (technically 4 bedroom with a smaller office downstairs), 2.5 bathroom house with a concrete basement. Everything about the place is a fairy tale. Lots of work to be done, but I’m looking forward to sinking my hands into the fun! Part of that is allocating a room to each of us for a home office, as we’re anticipating work from home pretty much permanently. My layout is above, roughly.

More details to come as they come, but I’m definitely starting with an 8 foot desk and wall mounting my 49” Dell. I want to run the cables through the walls, but we’ll see how ambitious we end up being, cable channels and false walls tend to provide a pretty great effect as well.

A quick list of some mac apps I’ve found great.

Rectangle - Default windows management on MacOS isn’t very good, and I can’t exactly use FancyZones or Dell Display Manager (DDM is available, but doesn’t support my monitor on MacOS). Rectangle is free and easy. Edge and corner snapping were very easy to get used to, and I especially like the bottom edge functionality which works really well with the super ultra wide.

Dozer - The menu bar can get cluttered, and the option to hide various icons behind a single dot is really nice. Very easy to learn and very functional. Great price too - Free!

Al Dente - On demand custom charging limitations. I’m just using the free version at the moment, but being able to limit to 80% charging is really nice. When plugged in, this mac doesn’t sleep, so I don’t see a ton of value in the pro version yet.

I’m still looking for a Notepad++ replacement that treats unsaved files the same, just leaving them as open unsaved tabs, but that might be asking for a bit much. I’ve tried SublimeText, CotEditor, and VSCode, and they’re all similar feels, but I think it’s just a behavioural thing - They all supposedly support hot exit on quit, but the red X isn’t actually quitting the app.

Other than that it’s been a pretty simple transition. I’ll probably cover more sweet apps as I find them too - Stay tuned.

Convergence

For a long while, likely since I got my Surface Pro ages ago, I had the idea of a beautifully converged system. Take a thin and light, maybe like the Surface Pro, and add a dock and an eGPU. This device could go anywhere and do most of your day to day, yet still come home, plug into a dock, and fire up some games or do some heavy rendering. Ultimately, the power of a full desktop rig couldn’t be ignored, and although there were times when I revisited that concept, finding something that would work well enough for me was futile.

I was fine with my Macbook Air and iPad Pro over our holidays in December. When we got back to Toronto in early January, I decided to sell my desktop and ordered a Macbook Pro 14”.

The config I went with was a bit of a middle ground. I was very interested in the Max, but the cost difference would have made it a bit too expensive with me putting extra money into the SSD upgrade and additional RAM. On top of that, I don’t anticipate needing much more than the already powerful 16 GPU cores in the Pro in the future. Even doubling the memory bandwidth didn’t seem like that big of a deal in workflows that I would be doing.

14” was a must have for me. I cannot stand lugging larger notebooks, and I feel I can get just as much done on a 14” screen as I can on a 16”. The smaller size means it should fit a bit better into tight spaces while on the go.

I chose 32GB of RAM for longevity. I know I could likely get by with 16GB of RAM, but I anticipate this will be my primary computer for the next 3 years, minimum. I’ve also seen the light of 64GB of RAM, and looking at my uses I’ve really only exceeded 32GB a handful of times.

Finally we have the 1TB SSD. This seems a bit light, but external SSD storage is relatively fast, and most of my local storage was consumed by RAW files for Lightroom Classic, or for games. I don’t anticipate playing too many games locally, and my whole Lightroom library for now and the immediate future is living on a Samsung T5 2TB drive. I’m only occasionally jumping into Lightroom Classic now anyway, and it’s mostly to pull older stuff. ~400-500mbps reads on RAW files are fine for that, and previews/catalog can still live on internal storage just fine. There’s plans for a NAS in our new house too, so I will likely end up moving the RAWs there too.

But why? Why sell off and abandon a constant in your life for so many years in favor of what only appears to be an expensive downgrade?

I’m not gaming as much.

Flat out, there’s very little desire to play games, and that’s been this way since June or earlier of 2021. And what if I do get the itch? Well, the M1 Pro is definitely capable of some titles, and more are being released for the platform all the time, but my primary focus will be cloud gaming. GeForce Now, Stadia, and XCloud through Xbox Game Pass Ultimate all allow streaming on pretty much any device, which for most of my single player focused gaming is plenty performant. Ultimately, I’m planning on purchasing an Xbox at some point as well, which should round things out. The current generation is extremely performant with fast SSDs and high end desktop class processing power, so at the price point it seems like a no brainer.

I’d like to reduce my tech footprint.

Seems like a buzz phrase! I love gadgets as much as the next nerd but my adventures through One Bag have helped me realize I love the idea of fewer things, but of high quality. This mindset is following me into technology - Why have a laptop and a desktop when I can have just a laptop that hits a similar performance in 95% of my workflows?

More flexibility and less compromise.

In the past on trips I’d often have to compromise with my portable device and wait to do a lot of heavy lifting until I got back to my desktop. Replacing the desktop with a Macbook Pro means I’ve got flexibility. Photography heavy trip with a bit of downtime? Pack the Mac and get ready for massive panoramas and HDR merges. Light trip with a bunch of city hopping? Maybe it’s just the iPad Pro! Weekend? Leave it all and take the phone. Lightroom CC has also made it a lot easier workflow wise here too - Any of my devices can be used for ingestion and the workflow across all of them is similar.

Synergy.

Oh hey, a buzz word. Yeah, I won’t lie, I love the synergy I get between the Macbook, iPad, and iPhone. Messages sync across all devices, answer a call on whatever device you’re on, Airpods are connected to everything, shared clipboard and handoff, and Sidecar to use my iPad as a second monitor. I’m definitely missing that on Windows.

Lowering my power consumption.

The desktop can consume north of 500w at full load. Even just the processor can guzzle 135w at full tilt. The Macbook Pro seems to have a full tilt consumption of roughly 60w. That’s insane, considering it’s anywhere from 75-100% of the performance in the workflows I’ll be utilizing it for.

ARM might be the way?

Still up in the air. I know x86 has a long list of legacy compatibility, but Rosetta 2 has shown me that can be fairly reasonably emulated in a lot of situations on ARM with minimal performance impacts. A lot of large tech companies are pushing toward ARM - Microsoft with the Surface Pro X, Google’s recently launched chip in the Pixel 6 series, and Nvidia’s Tegra are all great examples. Apple’s M series launched in 2020 and the various A series chips they’ve been shoving into phones and tablets have really lit a big spark to push toward ARM, and it’s good to see competition. It can only mean good things for the future of computing.

How does this all tie into “convergence”? Well, convergence has changed! I can have this relatively compact computer WITH all the power of a modern desktop. Games can be streamed from the cloud. Storage is cheap in the cloud and allows me to access my data on any device. Convergence now doesn’t need to be the concept I initially wanted, it changed as technology changed. Why need a dock when the monitor at home has a USB-C connection for power and display? Why an eGPU when the chipset inside the machine provides more than enough power at a low energy footprint? Why do I need extra ports when everything is so reliable and frankly better over wireless now? It’s reducing down into fewer items that are higher quality.

Looking back, this has likely been a transition just waiting to happen. I can remember in high school fawning over the old white iMacs, working through how best to get the spec I wanted. I chose a different path back then, but it’s been a hell of a fun one. I can only assume it’s going to stay fun.

Post Trip Report: Onebag To The Maritimes.

I gotta say, it was really nice travelling again. The whole trip was a whirlwind from start to finish, and there wasn’t a moment that went by that I wished I booked more than a week. I figured it’s been a bit of time stewing on how my list performed, so I’d go over what worked and what didn't.

The eternal struggle of getting a good photo at Peggy’s Cove Lighthouse.

The eternal struggle of getting a good photo at Peggy’s Cove Lighthouse.

First off, a quick overview. We were between a number of accommodations - An air mattress at a friend’s place, my parent’s cottage in Nova Scotia, a sofa at another friend’s place, and finally a hotel room in Halifax. Most of our time was spent either with friends and family, or at restaurants and bars. The weather was cool most days, with a lot of humidity and rain on a number of days. I had adjusted the previously posted packing list to include an ultralight down puffer jacket from Uniqlo and I also dropped the Bellroy classic pouch in favor of just stuffing my charger and cables into the tech pouch built into the Bellroy Transit.

What Worked?

For clothing, I was very happy with my choices and my minimal color palette. Choosing clothing for the day was as simple as grab and go. I don’t think I packed too much here. I ended up washing underwear daily, and the spare pair really came in handy for days where transit was a thing. My tees also sink washed nicely, that being said I only needed to sink wash one, and that was because I ended up grilling while wearing it and the smoke smells wouldn’t fade entirely.

The two wool pieces were absolute standouts! Not only did the Wool and Prince button down look and fit great, it also worked as almost a light jacket. Wrinkles from the bag fell out of it with body heat and it generally looked rather sharp. The All Saints hoodie really did regulate body heat quite well and looked fantastic doing so. I may grab another in black or dark grey if I can find it.

Finally for clothing, the Vessi shoes came through clutch. With a lot of rain, dry feet was a godsend. Although the outer fabric would be wet to the touch, my feet stayed nice and dry the entire time. Usually the shoes would be dry on the outsides by morning. Top it off with walking comfort and we were A-OK.

For toiletries, I was generally happy with what I brought. No comments overall, everything worked as expected and worked well. The Matador bags were probably the standout, they really do dry through like magic.

For electronics, my full camera kit was great for walking around everywhere and having a very performant camera in a very small package. The iPad Pro was awesome for downtime/reading/editing photos.

The Bellroy Transit overall made it really easy to organize and go place to place. Not once did I feel the bag was hindering me. Very happy with it overall.

What Could Improve?

For clothing, I was happy with what I packed, but if I was to do it again I’d likely pack another pair of underwear. The Maritimes is infamous for having fewer climate controlled homes, and with it being as humid as it was I occasionally had issues drying overnight. Since I had a spare pair it wasn’t so bad, but it was a bit tight some days. I would have also liked to pack a pair of longer socks for the colder days. The SmartWool no shows worked great, but a longer, thicker pair of socks would have been nice for chilly evenings. Finally for what I wish I had packed, a casual long sleeve shirt. I don’t actually have a long sleeve in any technical fabrics, but I do have a Seagale henley on the way. Something a bit longer sleeved would have been nicer for layering some of the days, and broke up the plain t-shirt monotony.

For toiletries, I really wish I tried to find some smaller deodorant and sunblocks. I liked the all solids, but these took up a good chunk of space. I’m also happy with the Lush but a scent free version would have been great. I’ve been trying “The Unscented Soap Company” bar shampoo and conditioner and they’ve been awesome.

There’s a couple things I didn’t use too - My GorillaPod could have stayed home, along with the buff and surprisingly the ultralight down. My hoodie and rain jacket provided enough layering on most days to stay comfortable. These didn’t take up a lot of space though so I’m not too ripped up about it.

Overall, I’m happy with my first solid packing list and how my gear performed. I’m looking forward to the next trip, and will be taking what I learned during this one and applying it! Expect a new packing list in a month or so.

MacBook Air M1: Initial Thoughts

“C’mon, these things have been out for a year and you still don’t have one? Really?”

In my defence, I’ve been trying very hard to not buy one, but after seeing the interoperability between the iPhone, iPad, and AirPods, I figured I could jump on the education discount and see what all the hype was about.

FUJI1825.jpg

I had other reasons as well.

  • There’s more and more MacOS around, and getting familiar with a new operating system isn’t a bad thing.

  • Travel without vacation is a bit easier to manage without taking my work laptop - A simple VDI would let me work from a much slimmer, much quieter device while on the go without having to carry a thicker, louder, hotter laptop.

  • I want to look into app development! It’s hard to publish apps on the App Store when you need to upload them from a Mac… Xcode is free, so why not?

Overall those are some pretty weak reasons for a new trinket, but here we are. I grabbed the base model M1 Air. That’s right. 8 cores, 7 GPU cores, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB SSD. Am I regretting not getting the 16GB RAM model? Well, we’ll see. For now this is just to dip my toes into the environment, and my use case is pretty simple, even though everything online seems to indicate this thing is a monster. Web browsing, blogging, coding, and some Lightroom work when away from my desktop. I figured I’d just give some bullet point initial thoughts after having this thing for about a week.

  • The build is great - No real noticeable flaws in seams etc.

  • The trackpad is actually wonderful. It didn’t take much to get started with the gestures and they stuck really well. I haven’t had a Windows trackpad that works this well. Coming from the Magic Keyboard on the iPad Pro I expected good, but not this good.

  • The keyboard experience is very nice - Not quite Thinkpad, but there’s a good bit of tactility to it and it’s an enjoyable typing experience.

  • The screen is great! Plenty bright for working in a bright space, great color, not any noticeable bleed. I’m really fond of TrueTone on my iPhone and iPad, and the MacBook is not different there! 13” is a good size for a laptop for me.

  • A lot of people note the bezels are outdated for a laptop, but I’ll have to disagree. They look fine.

  • Fanless is amazing. This thing gets slightly warm to the touch but not any worse. And it doesn’t slow down. My last finless device was a Zenbook and it wasn’t exactly a speed demon. The battery life was awesome, but Lightroom was an absolute joke on it.

  • The battery life is spectacular - I haven’t dug too deep on battery but I’ve charged it once Monday, and have been using it a few hours a day. We’re sitting at about 55% writing this.

  • Wake from sleep is instant! Thanks, ARM architecture.

  • Single USB-C cable works great to the U4919DW. Full resolution, no performance issues, and USB passthrough works a treat for the Logitech Unifying dongle.

  • Speaking of Logitech… The experience on Bluetooth isn’t great. It was a bit rough getting the Options software to pick up the devices on Bluetooth initially, and even then the mouse felt a bit weird. Not sure if this is Apple or Logitech, but the dongle seems to have smoothed stuff pretty well. I’ll need to play around with the gestures on the MX Master 3 and see about getting Flow setup between the desktop and MacBook.

  • Rosetta 2 really does do emulation well - There’s no appreciable difference between ARM and X86 built applications in day-to-day usage.

  • Built in window management is a bit wonky coming from Windows… I think I need to give it more time and look into it further, but it doesn’t feel as efficient as Windows based window management.

  • WTF is “Command”. I’m joking, but Ctrl to Command is a bit different.

  • Hello SideCar! Being able to tote my iPad around and use it as a secondary display just about whenever is a killer feature for someone used to a lot of screen real estate.

  • Universal clipboard and handoff in general is really nice - Tabs sync automagically, you can pickup on something on any device where you left off pretty easily.

I think that’s about all I have for now. I’ll have more as I keep using the device. For the time being, this thing has been a great computer so far!

Packing list - onebag to the maritimes.

Oh yeah! Late summer 2021 and we’re finally back to traveling!

The Bellroy Transit 28L, still my choice so far.

The Bellroy Transit 28L, still my choice so far.

All my planning has paid off! If you read earlier in the year, I’ve been trying and buying various things to make travel lighter and easier, which had lead to streamlining what I own and wear a little bit too. We’re headed to the maritimes for a week in just a week, and I’ve been having a lot of fun putting together my bag. Let’s start with the clothes.

Pretty minimal, I think I could cut down a bit more but we’ll see.

Pretty minimal, I think I could cut down a bit more but we’ll see.

I’ve been trying out a lot of different brands and options for clothing, and I think I’ve settled on this stuff so far. I’m keeping my colors to greys, blues, and blacks as well to streamline choices. All of the below is packed into a Peak Design medium packing cube.

  • 2x Seagale Action Merino t-shirts: These have been awesome so far. They’re a blend of Tencel, merino, and elastane, which means soft, stretchy, and odor/wrinkle resistant. Seagale is great too as they’re French, which means a more European focused cut. For someone smaller like me, XS actually fits pretty decent! I could probably cut this to just one. Two extra shirts as I can get multiple wears out of one, and they dry overnight after a sink or shower wash anyway.

  • 1x Wool and Prince 130gsm merino button down: I’m not happy with the price I paid to get this here, but I am happy with the overall fit and finish of the shirt. This is the first button down that I’ve been really happy with. I did take it to a tailor to taper the arms and bring up the hem a little bit, and now it fits great and wears better untucked. Merino is stink and wrinkle resistant, so I can wear it a lot without washing. Dresses up or down for some of the slightly less casual restaurants we may be hitting in Halifax. I wouldn’t mind grabbing another one of these in grey in the future.

  • 1x All Saints Mode Merino hoodie: This is the closest I could find to a normal hoodie in merino. Very warm for the weight, and quite soft. I still don’t think it’s perfect, but I’m pretty happy with it.

  • 1x Uniqlo Blocktech parka: I expect there might be a little bit of rain back home, and it’s possible we could see some chill off the water too, depending on where we’re going. I’ve had one of these forever and I’ve been real happy with it.

  • 2x Uniqlo Airism trunks: These are for sleep. One dirty one clean. I cold probably get away with just one considering how fast they dry, and I’ve been known to wear them more than once at home. I’ll take two just in case.

  • 2x Saxx Quest 2.0 boxer briefs: I’ve been a briefs guy for a long while but these are wonderful. Slight compression fit, great pouch, moisture wicking, good stretch, anti-stink built in, and they sink wash and dry overnight. They might do for swimming in a pinch! I’ve been adding these to the underwear drawer whenever I can.

  • 3x Smartwool No Show merino wool socks: Merino blended with nylon and elastane. I can get a few wears out of a pair but I figure they take up almost no space so why not bring 3 extras. They’ll sink wash and dry overnight.

  • 1x Arcade Midnighter adventure belt: This thing is pretty much just a stretchy waistband for all your pants. Nylon buckle so you can wear it through airport security, if that’s your jam. Works fine for a belt.

  • 1x Lululemon ABC Pants Skinny: I’m bringing the Warpstreme fabric version of the pants with me. They’re skinny fit, polyester with a little technical shine but not a ton. Work great as a plain pair of black “jeans” with a lot more stretch and a lot less weight. Happy with these!

  • 1x Uniqlo x Theory relaxed fit shorts: Surprisingly slim for being relaxed fit. Lots of pockets. Light weight Kando fabric means fast drying, and coupled with mesh pockets and internal drawstring they make for pretty decent swim trunks, while holding up as a chino short.

  • (Not pictured) Uniqlo Airism Mask: Gotta have a spare. This might actually end up being the Matador version if I like it.

Worn.

Worn.

Up next we have the on-body. Again, keeping with the minimal color palette of greys, blacks, and blues. Not pictured is the keys, wallet, phone, and AirPods. Those will be between pockets and bag most of the time. The keys will contain a NiteIze Doohickey and a RollingSquare InchargeX.

  • Vessi Everyday Sneaker: I had enough of the ads and finally bought them. I haven’t had an athletic style sneaker in ages, but these look space age and have some great features. They’re very comfortable for long walks, very light weight, and best of all, waterproof! I’ve tested them a bunch and they’re 100% no leaks.

  • Saxx Quest 2.0 boxer briefs: Same good things to say as above.

  • Smartwool no show merino wool socks: Same good things to say as above.

  • Seagale Action Merino T-Shirt: Same good things to say as above.

  • Lululemon ABC Joggers Skinny: Fancy sweatpants in the same fabric as the skinny pants. Exceedingly comfortable, great for flights, lounging, and just day to day.

  • (Not pictured) Uniqlo Airism Mask: I love the weight and the fabric, and the fact that they’re three layer masks. They wash and dry well, no wrinkles or special care.

DOP o’clock.

DOP o’clock.

The DOP bag has been kept to all solids to breeze through security. If I find something isn’t performing well, I can just grab stuff at a pharmacy locally.

  • Matador toiletries roll bag: This is dry-through and minimal. Holds stuff, doesn’t leak, but lets stuff inside dry out. Magic.

  • 2x Matador soap bags with Lush Seanik and Lush Avocado Co-Wash: The bags are magic for solid soap - They don’t leak but let the bars dry out. Seanik from Lush is a shampoo, but works great for washing body and clothing as well. The Avocado Co-Wash washes and rinses from hair really well, and doesn’t leave my hair super dry feeling. These two take care of personal hygiene and laundry needs.

  • Nalgene bottle with Lush Dirty Toothy Tabs: They work great, taste good, and they’re not a liquid.

  • Nalgene bottle with meds: Advil, Gravol, ginger Gravol, and Benadryl. Just in case.

  • Neutrogena sunblock stick: No liquids life. Takes a bit of extra care to apply but works well.

  • Schmidt’s deodorant: Wish I could have gotten a smaller size but it works. Might swap for Dove travel size.

  • Folding toothbrush: Self explanatory.

  • Folding Hairbrush: I bought this thing from a 100 yen store in Japan and it’s still going great.

  • Floss: For flossing.

It’s ya boi, the Peak Design 3L Sling.

It’s ya boi, the Peak Design 3L Sling.

Up next we have the tech bag - This also doubles as my day bag and holds my camera goods. I love how this can just be thrown into the top of the backpack and it’s good.

  • Peak Design 3L Sling: Just the right size for a Fuji X100V carry. I find myself thinking the 6L might be a better choice but this one has been consistently great.

  • Fujifilm X100V: Outfit with a hood, a B&W UV filter, a Peak Design cuff, and a 128GB SD card. This has been my main camera for over a year now and I still love it every time I pick it up.

  • Fujifilm TCL and WCL: Both outfitted with B&W UV filters. Great options to add a bit more flexibility to the fixed 35mm of the X100V, they give me a 50mm and a 28mm equivalent focal length while maintaining the 2.0 max aperture.

  • Fujifilm EF-X20 flash: Great compact flash that adds a bit more flexibility to the kit. Fires remotely via command flash on the X100V for off camera fun.

  • 2x extra Fuji batteries: Mirrorless isn’t exactly known for it’s great battery life.

  • 2x extra AAA batteries: The flash might get hungry.

  • Mophie 6000mAh external battery: This was a HUNT. This does power delivery off the USB-C port, has a lightning input, and supports pass through charging. I can charge this off lightning and chain my AirPods and my phone to it if I need to. Great battery.

  • Anker 30w Powerport Slim: This thing is great. 30w fast charging and fits in a coin pocket. Definitely a great backup charger just in case.

  • Apple Lightning SD card reader: Brand name still seems to be the best option. Fast, portable, reliable.

  • Etymotic soft case with Lightning EarPods: Just a backup. I’d like to replace these with a USB-C and Lightning audio dongle along with the 3.5mm EarPods. Mediocre sound but solid mic. Great in a pinch.

  • Microfibre cloth: Cloth. Cloth for cleaning. Cleaning cloth.

  • DIY filter kit for the flash: Cut up some old filters and packaged with an elastic. Provides a few more creative options.

  • Various cables: All 3ft, USB-C to USB-C, USB-A to USB-C, USB-C to Lightning, USB-A to Lightning. Charge all the things. They don’t leave the bag.

  • Hair elastic: Long hair life.

Bellroy classic pouch for the extras.

Bellroy classic pouch for the extras.

For extra tech I’m stowing it in a Bellroy classic pouch. I’m probably going to drop this and just use the tech portion of the backpack, as this is a bit much for just a few cables and a charger.

  • 6FT Cables: USB-C to USB-C for the USB-C things, and USB-C to Lightning for the Lightning things. Anker and AmazonBasics.

  • Apple USB-C SD card reader: It’s just faster than the other options and well built. Lets me ingest into the iPad directly.

  • BASEUS 65w GaN charger: 2x USB-C and 1x USB-A cover all my charging needs, and should be able to shoulder fast charging the iPad and the iPhone at the same time. Compact. Would like to swap this for an Anker option that has the removable cable in the future.

  • (Not pictured) Cards: Health card, debit card. Just in case.

The free-floaters.

The free-floaters.

Last up we have what gets packed in spots in the bag.

  • iPad Pro 2020 11” w/ Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard: This thing actually penned this entire blogpost. I’ve been really enjoying the magic keyboard experience, the typing is really nice vs the Smart Keyboard folio. Overall this can do 80% of what I would do on my desktop and does it all really well. Happy with the size and the performance. Great for planning days, reading/entertainment, or editing photos in downtime.

  • Packable Towel: Probably won’t need it as everywhere we’re going should have towels but nice to have. This has served me well across a lot of trips. Would like to replace it with a Matador nano version, but maybe in the future.

  • GorillaPod Action Tripod: Holds the X100V just fine and doesn’t take up a ton of space.

  • Matador packable tote: Got these for 12 bucks on clearance, they’re built great and pack down to nothing. Love the waterproof shell. Can clip to my sling in case we grab anything while we’re out.

  • Merino Buff: Probably mostly a face mask for sleeping if needed. Doesn’t take any space.

All packed up!

All packed up!

I’m real excited to be taking this thing out for a spin. I may still make a few tweaks to the final packing list, but overall I think this is what’s gonna be going with me. Post trip report to follow!

2021 EDC Two: The Streamlining

Pretty simple update here.

  • iPhone 12 128gb Black w/ Baltic Blue leather case

  • Baltic Blue Apple MagSafe wallet

  • Apple AirPods Pro

  • Keys on a dangler/shackle

  • Nite Ize Doohickey

  • InCharge X

The Doohickey is a key shaped multitool that I'm testing out as I was finding without my TPT I'd inevitably run across the need to open a bottle or a package. This is a bit more streamlined and likely fine through airport security in the future. It seems to do the job pretty well, even if it’s a bit more brute-force for opening packages.

I made a quick update to the tips on my AirPods - I added a bit of memory foam from another pair of in ears, under the silicone tip. This facilitates a much better fit and some additional passive isolation. They’ve been great still.

The InCharge X is not really needed much in this setup, but it doesn’t take a lot of space. It’s a nice update to the previous InCharge 6 I had, as it fully supports 100w Power Delivery and other fast charging protocols. It’s really only going to be used in my extended setup, which is what you see here, along with below:

  • Mophie PowerStation 6K PD

  • Anker PowerPort Atom III Slim 30w

  • 3ft USB-C to Lightning cable

The Mophie battery is absolutely perfect. It’s a bit smaller than the phone, weighs a bit less than the phone, and throws out 18w power delivery off the USB-C port. It has a lightning input, and a USB-A output, along side that USB-C connection. It also supports “priority charging” which lets me chain the charger to the battery, then to my phone, and will prioritize charging the phone followed by the battery. I can charge my phone and my Airpods at the same time. The best part is, it takes up very little extra space compared to the 10k Anker PD batteries. This is definitely the best option until Apple comes out with some battery case that uses MagSafe, and even then, who knows. The above gives me the ability to go pretty much indefinitely, and would be what I’d consider the minimum required for indefinite operation.

One Bag: Planning Is My Way Of Missing Travel

I miss travel. I think everyone who travelled before misses it too. Everyone expresses it differently. For me, it’s diving into another gear obsession, and planning out the best way to make my travel as easy as possible. If you’re not familiar with the one bag philosophy, it’s the idea of packing fewer, higher quality items into a single bag to make transit smoother and your trip easier. The less you need to think about while you’re at your destination, the better!

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Of course if you’re going to be one bagging, you need a bag. Being a Peak Design fan, my first thought was the Peak Design Travel Backpack, but I quickly decided it was a bit too big, too expensive, and too heavy for what I needed. Also, dropping my kit down from Sony to Fuji really decreased my camera footprint, so I decided on selling my everyday backpack. Taking it’s place as my main bag will be the Bellroy Transit 28L! It’s a fairly subdued look which I like, the weight is good, and the price point was much more affordable than the Peak Design Travel Backpack. It fits my Peak Design Sling in the top, which in transit can double as a tech bag, and should be able to fit a decent size packing cube as well. The laptop sleeve is spacious, so if necessary I can pack my iPad Pro and my work laptop. There’s some nice organization features, and hidden water bottle pockets. Overall, great pickup, even if I’ve only used it a couple times for groceries so far.

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I’m also evaluating fabrics. One bag clothing at peak should be either fast to dry, or odor resistant, or ideally both. It’d be nice if the fabric regulated body temperature in either hot or cold, and also resists wrinkles. That puts cotton out of the running unfortunately. Since you’re packing less, you’re either looking to get multiple wears out of something, or you’re looking for something you can wash in the evening quickly that will dry while you sleep.

I started with a few synthetics from Uniqlo, but I’ll also be trying out some merino as well in a few weeks. The synthetics are two of the three from Uniqlo I want to try, Airism, and Heattech. Airism is poly/spandex, and super light, generally coined as an undershirt material, but can in a pinch work great as a fast drying, super compact travel shirt. It’s a bit technical looking with some sheen to it, but in my initial testing it dries after a hand wash in about 2 hours. Heattech is a blend of more materials, dries a little slower (About 3 hours, still extremely quick!), but ultimately feels more like one of my H&M cotton shirts. I think between the two I’d choose Heattech as my packed shirt.

I plan on trying an Icebreaker Anatomica short sleeve in a few weeks, which is a merino/nylon/elastane blend. They’re definitely a little pricey, but if the fit is good and they’re as smell resistant as they claim, I could possibly get away with 2-3 of them for a full trip. From my understanding they’re also fairly fast drying, lighter weight, and they have great heat regulation properties.

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I’m testing socks and underwear too. I’ve been on the same Hanes crew cotton poly blend forever, and they generally stink after one wear. They also take up a bunch of space. My first stop for socks is Darn Tough. Vermont based, merino blend socks with an unconditional lifetime warranty. I went with 1/4 ultralights, and thanks to a distributor error, ended up getting 3 extra pairs of no shows for free as well. I stress tested these at home and got about 5 days out of them before I decided to put them in the wash, and really, I didn’t notice any funk on them then. I still want to grab a more cushioned crew version which I think would be better for colder climates, but so far the ultralights have been great even down to -10c here.

For underwear, I’m currently on synthetics from Calvin Klein. Again, poly/spandex blend, they fit like my normal cotton calvins, but dry a lot faster. Overall, I’m happy, but I’m going to grab a pair of Icebreaker Anatomicas just to try. I can’t see myself being comfortable wearing underwear for more than a day, but hey, it’s science time!

I still haven’t found a tech hoodie that’s 100% attractive for me. There’s a few options from the likes of (surprise) Icebreaker and Lululemon that I’ll try thanks to generous return policies, but nothing has stuck 100% yet. More on hoodies later.

For pants, I’m going to start with some technical pants from Lululemon, the ABC skinnies in warpsteme fabric. Quick drying, lots of stretch, etc. Should pack light, and if I like them 2 pairs of those and a pair of the joggers should last me a good long while.

Anyway, quick detour into me missing travel. More to come as it comes. Cheers!