What's In My Bag

The “What’s in my bag” newsletter was kind enough to ask me to participate in their series highlighting bags and their contents. Read my submission here or in their online edition.

About the bag

The Fraction backpack by Mission Workshop

I love this backpack. It’s waterproof, which is great for city commuting by any method, and it holds a lot of stuff, but can take on a smaller profile when it’s mostly empty. I bought mine in 2015 and use it for everything from day-to-day laptop toting to overnight trips, and I even sometimes use the top flap to strap something big and awkward to it, like a bag of plush stuffing.

What’s inside the bag

Wet Ones antibacterial wipes

I keep a pack of these antibacterial wipes in just about every bag I have. They’re great for wiping away germs after using the subway railings, or for sanitizing your airplane tray table. I also use them to disinfect my phone.

Paracord zipper pull

You never know when you’re going to need a small bit of strong cord! I made a tutorial for these paracord zipper pulls a few years ago and attached one to every jacket and bag. Not only are they effective as zipper pulls, they can be untied to become a useful length of strong cord.

BaoFeng BF-F8HP 8-Watt ham radio

I recently got my ham radio license, but without an antenna on the roof, I’ve got to be outdoors (preferably up high) to make contact with other hams. This 8-Watt radio is ubiquitous in the ham community because it’s small, affordable, easy to program. I did upgrade the antenna to get better performance.

Bi-fold small parts organizer

When I teach electronics prototyping to design grad students at SVA, it’s useful to have some small parts on hand to demonstrate with and lend to my students. I love this double-sided parts organizer for transporting small things like switches, sensors, LEDs, and small microcontroller boards.

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Pavlok Teardown

Welcome to the new teardown series on my channel, where I take apart gadgets and share what I find inside. First up is the Pavlok, a shocking wearable designed to help you break bad habits.

The Pavlok comes with the main device itself, as well as two silicone wristbands.

The Pavlok pairs over bluetooth with your phone to control the settings through an app, which is also designed to keep you motivated to use the device in the most effective way possible. You can deliver an electric shock to yourself via the app or by pressing the top of the device. It also can supposedly detect when you move your hand to your mouth, say during smoking or nail biting, which are two of the habits its designed to help break.

To take it apart, I started cutting the plastic around the little metal nubs. The tricky thing about taking this thing apart, at least before the battery’s died, is that it is easy to shock yourself while holding it in place. It’s so small that one of the only flat surfaces by which to grip it is also the activation button. So I had to use the phone to make sure it was on a low setting, and try to avoid pinching it while cracking open the plastic.

The electrodes are also the case, which makes for a straightforward three-piece case. I was also able to put it back together again, which is a rare occurrence in one of my teardowns.

My friend David Cranor, an electrical engineer, came over to help examine the circuit and research the parts we could identify.

Here’s a list of tools we used:

Read on to discover the components we found…

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Rode Procaster Microphone Setup for Voiceover Recording

It’s time for a change.

For the last decade, the microphone I used for voiceovers was the Zoom H4N, connected to my computer as a USB audio device. It’s been great, don’t get me wrong, but I’m ready to go to the next level with my voiceover recording, so it was time to get a professional quality microphone and the right accessories to bring out its best.

I picked out the Rode Procaster dynamic microphone because in my research, it would be good for female voiceover recording (me) in places with background noise (pretty much everywhere in NYC). Since I just got it I can’t pass judgement on those factors yet and don’t have its competitors to compare it to, so this isn’t a review– the proof will be heard in my YouTube channel’s voiceover quality, so you be the judge!

Here’s a list of all the bells and whistles that go with a microphone like this, in case you’re looking to create a similar setup yourself. Amazon carries a bundle of mic, arm, and shock mount.

But that’s not all that’s needed to make this mic work for home recording into a computer…

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Wire Cutters (Watercolor Speedpaint 01)

Welcome to a new video series on my YouTube channel, all about watercolor painting. I’m working on a series of illustrations of beloved tools, like these flush diagonal cutters.

What I like about watercolor is how relaxing it is. Finding time to paint a little each day helps me unwind. In case you want to get into watercolor painting, I’ve made a post cataloging all the supplies I use to create watercolor paintings.

When I’m done painting, I scan it in, touch it up, and upload it to my print shop, in case you are interested in owning a copy of this design. I’ve also made a poster featuring all the tools in this series so far. You can get a discount to my print shop by signing up for my email newsletter or joining my Patreon.

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