Things I Like

There’s an old saying: If it doesn’t move and it should, hit it with WD-40. If it moves and it shouldn’t, get the duct tape.

Leaving aside the fact that WD-40 isn’t really a lubricant (I like Boeshield T-9, food-grade silicone spray and Phil Wood Tenacious Oil for those), the duct tape part of the equation is pretty good. Seems like every household has some duct tape around, and everyone uses it for something.

Problem is that most of the duct tape around these days sucks. The fabric is coarse woven and lumpy, so it doesn’t conform well to uneven surfaces, the adhesive leaves residue and pulls off paint, and the damned stuff doesn’t work well in the cold or the heat.

Not so with gaffer’s tape. It’s commonly used in the theatre and other performing arts arenas, and is kind of an open secret.

Several different companies make gaffer’s tape, but the canonical manufacturer is Permacel

It’s expensive (around $13 per roll) but worth it.

We all have to tie things down now and then. To the roof of a car, to the back of a bike rack, to a trailer.

Rope works fine, but I really like using nylon webbing with those ladder lock buckles.

You can get the webbing in various widths, though 1″ is the most popular. You can get it in just about any length you want. And the familiar ladder lock buckles (just like on your backpack) make securing your stuff dead simple. Just thread the loose end through the buckle and pull tight.

Simple, cheap and effective. And you don’t have to figure out if that knot you just tied is any good.

Moleskine notebooks are slightly pretentious, because there’s this whole backstory to them about how they’ve been the legendary notebooks of legions of deep thinkers, provocative writers and sublime artists for over 200 years. By association, then, if you use Moleskine notebooks, perhaps you, too, are a member of the intellectual and creative elite. You, me, Matisse and Hemingway, all kicking back and having an absinthe after a long day of creative fervor.

But let’s face it. You’re probably not. Lord knows I’m not.

However, there’s no getting around the fact that they are really nice notebooks, regardless of your mental pedigree, despite the Levenger-esque breathless copy on the website.

They come in a variety of sizes, from pocket sized to large format, and they offer both a hard cover (oilcloth, or something similar and durable) as well as a soft cover (flexible cardboard). You can get them blank, ruled, with graph squares or even with musical staves. The binding is of good quality and won’t fall apart, while the paper is equally nice. Acid free, it takes solid or liquid ink well, without bleeding, and it feels good to write on.

One of my favorite features, though, is the expanding paper pocket on the inside back cover of each notebook. It’s perfect for all those little bits of paper I seem to accumulate that I want to hang onto, but can’t find a place for.

I like the pocket sized hardcover notebook, myself. I almost always have one with me to write down notes, directions, phone numbers, or whatever else might come up. I tend to use it for information I’ll want to keep around for a while.

I use the pocket size softcover notebooks for more transitory stuff. Meeting notes from work, shopping lists, etc. They’re cheaper and I have less of a mental hang-up about filling them with boring crap.

There’s a US distributor at Moleskine US.

I’m always thirsty, so I’m always dragging a bottle of water around with me. A few years ago, I bought a narrow-mouth Nalgene bottle because I got tired of losing the caps to my reused Evian bottles and I got tired of the damned things leaking everywhere.

Nalgene bottles come in multiple colors as well as a couple different materials, including (transparent) polycarbonate, (opaque) HDPE and (opaque) LDPE. I got the polycarbonate one.

Three years later, my bottle is still going strong, despite being dropped countless times, being carried upside down in a messenger bag, being thrown on the floor of my car, and otherwise subjected to the daily abuses of being around me.

None of this is news to most people, though, as it seems like every third college student has a Nalgene bottle clipped to their backpack, but I guess there’s a reason for that. They’re super durable, and they don’t leak.

You can get them in all kinds of colors and capacities. I prefer the 32 oz narrow mouth bottle, because it’s easier to drink from than the widemouth bottle without embarassing accidents.

In addition to the ubiquitous college student water bottles, Nalgene makes a variety of other containers including travel bottles, jars, bike bottles, hydration packs, mugs, etc. They even provide replacement caps should you lose yours.

You can even submit an idea for a new Nalgene product.

There’s been some recent press about the possibility that certain kinds of plastics leach chemicals into whatever is contained in them. I’m not sure what I think about that, yet.