Thanks. Now the umbrella is gonna stay in the bag year round. Lol

Yeah they shoot crossing beams of “plasma”. The waterproof ones I’ve been using don’t have the most accessible beams so you need to use a dry leaf or thin twig to get it between the beams to light it and then use THAT to light the fires most of the time. Definitely not the end all be all and they take some getting used to, but I like them and find them decently reliable. I think I will still toss a regular bic lighter or something in the bag as a secondary backup in case it bricks.

I don’t know if it’s the case with all heavy machinery globally but most of the machines in the US have universal keys and you can buy sets with all of them on a loop for not that much. I ordered a ~40 pack of “all” heavy machinery universal keys for like 25 bucks and then I just cut it down to the 20 or so that I actually would likely run into in the area I live. I pretty much just tossed the keys for ones that aren’t really sold over here and kept the ones that I know I have seen in my state multiple times.

My mom was (and still is) very sex positive. She would answer any questions I had growing up. By the time school got around to teaching me sex Ed in 5th grade I already knew everything and then some.

My father basically never touched the subject until one day when I was ~17 almost 18 he came into my room and sat on my bed before he awkwardly tried to start talking about the topic and all I said was “I’ve been having sex for years dad” and then he slapped his knee, gave me a hug and walked out of my room.

It’s a seasonal item. It’s probably getting removed here soon since California is about to transition to wild fire season any second now lol.

Your concerns about the lighter are valid. I probably should throw in something that is mechanical or chemical based just as a double super emergency backup.

Burning the Paracord would be pretty much a final hail mary for starting a fire if I absolutely needed one right away and I couldn’t get anything else to light. It’s obviously much more useful as a rope than anything else. Just a little extra assurance and it doesn’t remove any functionality from the Paracord so why not.

Yeah I just realized one day that if the bag is at home under my bed and the entire West coast loses power and turns into anarchy overnight I might not be able to get to my bag and at that point I would just be furious that I didn’t have it with me. I guess I could just leave it in my car as there are very few situations where I am terribly far from my personal vehicle, but even then. You never know when you’ll need the tools or the trauma kit. It hasn’t happened yet, but if someone does get injured to the point that my tourniquet is the difference between them surviving or not I’ll happily lug around the bag for the rest of time in the off-chance it saves someone’s life one day.

Trauma kit number 1. Always. Hard to survive if you bleed out from a survivable accident.

Space blankets are legit magic. They should be given out more often. They can very easily save peoples lives.

Traditionally I carried water proof matches in a little canister but the electric “windproof” plasma lighter lasts a long time on one charge (like several months of constant use in my testing). Plus the solar charging bank can refill it almost instantly. I also extensive experience starting fires without any tools or assists so if I absolutely have to I can just do that. It’s mostly just a lightweight convenience.

The wax soaking means if everything is wet I can better use a small frayed chunk of it to start a fire if nothing else is dry enough to easily start.

Yeah the bag is bulky and heavy, but I work an office job so it pretty much just rides along with me in my car to and from location most of the time. The bag I use is capable of expanding and holding enough clothing for me to reasonably hike or take most trips. Plus it’s always funny when people pick it up and are surprised I carry all that shit about every day. But they never complain when I am able to fix of solve their problems because I’m basically a portable work bench.

Cunt

I will not be dumping out the entire bag for a money shot but I can list off it’s contents for ya.

1x “military” medical kit. Contains all the basics, but most important to me is a legit CAT tourniquet. I added some Neosporin and extra cloth Band-Aids cause why not

1x roll of gorilla tape. It used to be gaffer tape, but in “emergency” situations I place more importance on the strength of the tape and I care less about the residue left behind.

4x “space blankets”. Sheets of silver reflective mylar have a lot of uses beyond keeping you warm but they are shocking good at that in a pinch.

1x battery bank with built in charging cables and a solar panel for refilling the bank.

1x waterproof (when closed) electric lighter. I am capable of starting fires without a lighter of any kind but it sure makes it much easier and it can be recharged by the solar pack theoretically an unlimited number of times. It’s also on a necklace with a built in whistle and compass.

~30 feet of wax soaked high strength Paracord.

20x 1 foot UV resistant zip ties

1x water key.

1x Leatherman

1x mini ratchet and socket set (5.5mm-15mm) with common driver heads for most common screws

1x small electric screwdriver and tool set for small things (electric screwdriver fails in a usable state)

~20 keys for the most common construction equipment found where I live.

1x umbrella

1x bottle of super glue

1x small tube blue loctite

1x hand pumped 3 stage water filtration system with built in cup and a spare set of filters

1x deck of cards

I feel like am forgetting some things, but that is the bag off the top of my head.

I still have some things I want to add like the GPS for the bag itself, but I think it’s mostly where I want it as a daily carried bug out bag.

I think I might start putting together a second bag that has room for bigger things and more quantities, but that one will just stay at home.

?

You’re kinda glossing over the part where it notifies the thief after awhile if they have an unknown tile or air tag near them for too long. In the case of stolen bags it is beneficial to me that the thieves are not made aware of any GPS tracking. And most people don’t put trackers in their own backpacks so if I am able to hide it in such a fashion that they are unable to notice it right away it makes the odds of me getting my stolen goods returned much higher.

The bag weighs like 40 pounds already so it’s not really weight that I am particularly concerned about haha.

Honestly that is tempting… I could hide it inside the medical pouch pretty well too I think. Hmm… I have some choices to make.

How frequently does it update location?

Those trackers rely on pinging off nearby devices. I need it to tell me where the bag is regardless of what’s nearby the bag.

Plus they let people know the device is near them after awhile.

Yeah I can understand a subscription cost for something like this, but charging nearly 4 times as much for frequent location updating feels like intentionally making a product worse so you can try and justify the cost of the “full” service. Idk.

You aren’t wrong. The bag I am using does have a secret compartment I added that is pretty hard to find on accident and it can fit a phone. It’ll probably make it a little more likely to get spotted but it would take an observant thief and in my experience they are not the smartest folk around.

Those look cool but charging more for more frequent location updates is incredibly cringe.

Yeah my only concern is being able to see the location of the bag really. I think I’m just going to to do the old aindoid phone stashed inside with find my phone enabled.

I can install a barebones OS and basically disable everything except GPS. Im sure I can get at least a day or 2 out of it. Worst case I just add another solar battery pack and wire it up to that.

I’m a fucking idiot… This is the obvious answer to my problem lol.

I have several old androids I could toss a cheap SIM into and just pay like a flat fee for a year service.

Thank you for pointing out the most obvious thing that I will be punching myself for not thinking of lol.

I’m like actually disappointed in myself for not having that thought cross my mind once. Haha

Hmmmm… I appreciate the ideas. I don’t think I’m technically proficient enough to make my own custom system. I can build computers and repair electronics, but I have never made anything on my own unfortunately.