Thirty Seconds Of (Admittedly Noisy) Work

This weekend I’m very mentally tired, for reasons that may become clear soon. (That I’m supposed to be voting on 14 California state ballot propositions, 10 San Francisco city propositions,11 One of which will, thankfully, make it more difficult to put more propositions on the ballot in the future… and a regional transit measure doesn’t help.) So this will be a low-effort post, sorry! And this post is… Recent Purchases I’ve Liked.

• Peak Design City Crescent (6L): Peak Design, producers of bougie, arguably-overpriced-arguably-not camera bags, has recently introduced a line of cheap(er), mainstream “city bags.” These bags, particularly the 6L City Crescent, left the typical travel-and-bag influencer types salivating, which left me slightly skeptical — is it really that good, or are they just good at marketing? But, uh, it really is a very, very good bag. The 6L size is big enough to actually carry everything you need for a day out in the city — not least a full liter of water — while still being small enough not to get in the way. It’s got a magnetic pocket on the outside that’s perfect for sunglasses, and there’s a bag hook in a side pocket that lets you hang the bag from a table instead of stuffing it on the ground. It also has a tiny little AirTag pocket that’s pretty cute. It is, basically, my perfect day-to-day bag. The one thing that makes me hesitate is that I’m now seeing a $90 price — I’m pretty sure it was only $75 when I picked it up a few weeks ago? Also, they keep selling out. So maybe wait for a sale?
• Belkin 10K BoostCharge Plus: I recently discovered I owned no functional power banks, so I panic-bought this Belkin before heading on a trip involving a strenuous all-day hike. It’s a power bank! It’s literally just a solid power bank. But! It has a USB-C cable built-in, so you don’t have to carry anything else, which is pretty charming.
• Hoto Air Pump Pocket: I literally just bought this,22 Because it was on sale for 25% off, mostly. and I’ve only used it once, so consider this a conditional endorsement.33 Though a friend that bikes almost every day swore by it, hence my interest. It’s a handheld, li-ion-battery-powered air compressor for bike tires — hook it up to the tire valve, select the right pressure, press start, and after about thirty seconds of (admittedly noisy) work, the tire is correctly inflated! I was using a foot pump before, which was a huge hassle — not least because my bike is hanging in a bike room and had to be unlocked and propped up every time I used it. This is much easier.
• Muji Side Seamless Double Gauze Pajamas: So I had a set of Muji’s flannel pajamas, and while I liked them in theory, I always overheated while wearing them. But, luckily, on my last trip to Canada, a quick trip to Muji revealed the existence of their double-gauze pajamas, which are light and breathable and comfortable all night long.
• Damita Thread Cutter Set: You may recall that I took a sewing bootcamp a couple months ago. One thing I learned that is that stitching is much easier to cut with spring-loaded thread snips. So I bought thread snips (in a full thread cutter set) so that I can remove all the stray stitching from my low quality fast fashion Uniqlo pants.
• Thursday Boots Premier Low Top: I wanted a nice pair of brown sneakers to replace my last pair of sneakers (rapidly falling apart) and Thursday Boots has yet to disappoint. Now, I recently saw an alarming Reddit post that money sent to Thursday Boots is immediately turned into anti-Roe-vs-Wade PAC money, but after further research, my understanding is that the cofounder is basically an old-money Yale type who was in a social club related in some not-totally-direct way to Kavanaugh and friends. So, I think (?) it is not totally unethical to buy Thursday Boots, which is nice, because they do have a pretty nice quality for their price point.
• Ikea Omtänksam shoehorn: But you knew that already.
• Xteink X4: But you knew that one too.