Details Are Everything
My new messenger bag from Ugmonk came today, and it’s beautiful.
I’ve never owned anything like this before. The quality is just higher than I’m used to. The leather, although super beautiful, is tough. Like, tougher than I imagined it’ll be. I knew that the description said the leather will take a while to conform to how I use it, but I didn’t realize what that meant until I felt it. This is some tough material. Even the straps are tough, and I had trouble pushing the straps into the little nibs to hold everything closed. I even broke off one of the nibs, but I quickly fixed it with some super glue.
I eventually figured out how to unclasp the straps when I needed it to, and I can only imagine the whole process getting easier once the leather straps conform to how I use them.
The inside is the real story, though. I can fit everything I need for work and then some. There are four main compartments, one on the front, big enough for my iPad, one on the back, big enough to carry a large Moleskine notebook, my paperback copy of the Great Gatsby, and my Kindle Paperwhite with the leather cover. Inside, there’s a compartment designed specifically for laptops, which is where my MacBook Air fits into perfectly. And then there’s the big pocket that will eventually contain my new Cocoon GRID-IT! that should come in the next week or so. When this comes, I will use it to organize my Apple SuperDrive, my MagSafe power adapter, my two pairs of Apple EarBuds, some AAA batteries, a stack of index cards, a lightning cable with power adapter, and the USB charger dongle for my adonit stylus. On the inside of the bag, there are even more pockets. I can fit another large Moleskine notebook (but that’s where my new Baron Fig notebook will go into once it comes), another pocket big enough to contain 3 Field Notes notebooks and 3 Moleskine cahier journals. There are two pockets for pens, and yet two bigger pockets on the ends, that I’m using to house 10 pens, a mechanical pencil, two highlighters, and a sharpie. Phew. And there’s still room to spare. The bag is so unbelievably light that it doesn’t feel like I’m carrying anything at all. I can’t wait to take this to work and put her to good use.
Wow, this entry turned into a whole review of a bag. That’s kind of awesome, actually. Anything else happen today? My Doxie scanner broke a few days ago, which is sad. I may be able to get it replaced, once the customer service reps get back to me. In the meantime, I bought the Scanbot app from the App Store, and holy shit, this app made me actually consider not even bothering with replacing my Doxie scanner yet. It scans beautifully. I can create a default naming convention for each scan, which I did, then it can OCR the documents, and finally upload them all to a specific folder in my Dropbox. The whole workflow was smooth, frictionless, and amazing. I don’t get that much paper in my life anymore, so if I don’t get a replacement Doxie from the company, I may just scan everything with my phone. The iPhone 6’s camera is that good.
I also cleared my desk. All it has now is just my iPad, my iPhone, and my CamelBak water bottle. Before it had like seven pocket Moleskine notebooks, a bunch of books, a folder with my handwritten novel in it, the two larger Moleskine notebooks, and a couple of random pocket sized Moleskine’s. Next week, I should be getting the mStand for my MacBook, Apple’s wireless keyboard, and Magic Trackpad. My desk will look nice and proper like, finally. I’m also considering buying a few more posters from Ugmonk to complete the scene. It’s going to be awesome.
Why does it look like I have fewer things but I’m spending all this money? Because I’m buying not only quality items, but I’m focusing on the details, and the details are everything.