What’s in your bag, Michael Moore?

What’s in your bag? is a recurring feature where we ask people to tell us a bit more about their everyday gadgets by opening their bags and hearts to us. This week, we’re featuring Verge Reviews Coordinator, Michael Moore.

I generally aim to keep my bag as light as possible, so that it’s easier to maneuver through New York City, while also making sure I’m prepared for the most likely problems I could encounter. Those needs might make the contents of my bag a bit more about utility and redundancy than other bags we’ve featured. My job doesn’t require me to go to any events or anything, so it’s mainly geared towards carrying things to and from work, and for the occasional excursion beyond that.

Timbuk2 Heist Messenger bag

I bought this bag last year before a trip to Tokyo. I wanted something compact, easy to get things out of, and to still be able to hold my work laptop when I got back. Its main feature is a zipper on the back that gives me quick access to the inside of the bag without unclipping the flap. It also fits a lot more than I often give it credit for. On a recent trip to Ikea I managed to carry everything listed below plus a towel, whiskey glass, cutting board, and two pillows inside this one bag.

13-inch Apple Macbook Air (Early 2015)

This is the laptop I was given on my first day at The Verge. I was going to request a Windows laptop, but this was literally put into my hands before I could ask. So I just went with it. It has been something of an improvement over the previous laptop I had, which weighed a lot more, and it’s good enough for most of my work-related tasks.

Nexus 6P w/ Google Live Case

The Nexus 6P is a Nexus 6P, there isn’t really much to say about that. The case is a Live Case I got shortly after Google started selling custom ones. I run a tabletop RPG for some friends, most of whom are comic artists, and so they tend to draw their characters while we play. The case design is something I put together with some art one of the players had done of the whole party.

Anker PowerCore and USB-C cable

I bought the PowerCore, like my bag, for my trip to Tokyo. I needed a battery for keeping my phone charged since I was going to be using it a lot to get around and for translation needs. The Anker cable was something I bought recently to replace the lost USB-A to USB-C cable that came with my phone. However, it’s proven to be a much better cable than the lost one was because it’s about three times the length and nicely braided.

Hobonichi Techo planner

I think this is my fourth Hobonichi Techo, which you might have seen featured in last year’s Verge Holiday Gift Guide. I initially got one to see if I’d actually use a physical day planner, instead of just using digital means to track everything (which I was bad at keeping up-to-date.) It turned out to be incredibly helpful, and so I’ve been getting them ever since. They also sell really good covers for them.

Pilot Frixion pens

I had heard about erasable pens for a while before I finally managed to find and buy one. They’ve become my writing implement of choice since then. I like how they feel and write, but obviously the main selling point is being able to erase the ink. I use that a lot more often than I thought I would, and has made the writing in my day planner a lot neater.

Notebooks

A writer friend of mine once explained that he always carried notebooks around with him as a way to write down any ideas he got. He kept a different notebook for each project. I liked this idea and started doing it as well. One I use for miscellaneous things, while the other is for ideas for the aforementioned tabletop RPG I run.

AKG K845BT

This is when I put myself on blast a bit. I was looking to get some nice headphones, which coincided with AKG announcing they were making a Persona 5 version of the K845BT. These aren’t them, but I liked the way they looked and reviews of them seemed to be generally positive. Plus the regular version was much cheaper, and easier to get.

ZERO AUDIO ZH-DX200-CT

This was another purchase for the Japan trip thing. Vlad wrote a rather glowing review of these cheap ear buds, and I figured they’d be ideal for traveling compared to my AKG, (due to being much smaller and not requiring charging.) They are now a permanent fixture of my bag as a backup set of headphones.

euroSCHIRM Light Trek Umbrella

Somedays you forget to check the weather forecast, and then it starts raining and you are completely unprepared. After having this happen all too frequently I just started keeping an umbrella in my bag. It weighs barely anything, so I forget it’s even in there most of the time, but now I’m never not prepared for an unexpected rainstorm.

Manga in Theory and Practice: The Craft of Creating Manga

Earlier this year we moved offices, which doubled my commute time. This however has been a boon to my reading, as it’s given me enough time to get reading done to and from work. Manga in Theory and Practice is by Hirohiko Araki, the creator of the long running JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure comic. I read a lot about comic theory for my Masters thesis, and so I’m always interested to read different perspectives on it. This one is especially interesting since we rarely get these sorts of books translated into English.