What I carry in my Work Pack 2023

Posted on by Mark Myers Leave a comment

I am not a light traveller in general, I tend to carry a lot to cater for all situations and this is particularly true with my work bag, as a long time contractor I always find it best to not rely on anything being present at a clients site and always carry everything you need for a full days work.

Lets start with the basics, After trying lots of rucksacks over the years LowePro has proved to be the most consistent and best padded (they are designed to keep camera lens’s safe which cost more than laptops), their only downside is the constant model change, so when ever your current bag wears out, you have to work out the current equivalent model. Looking at their site just now, if I was buying a new one it would be the Flipside 500 AW II, which is fractionally larger than the one I currently use but still good, in addition to the excellent padding they are very water resistant and stuffed with good pockets and can take a hell of a lot of weight 1, also in the picture is a Totes Eco x-tra strong which is a good work horse umbrella.

Next comes the Laptop(s), when I’m using my own laptop I favour the highest power 15inch ThinkPad that can be charged off USB-C that I can get (which seems to change from generation to generation), but currently I’m mainly using the clients laptop, and for my own work I’m finding a good android tablet + keyboard and mouse is doing just fine, for this you currently can’t beat Samsung, though their keyboards are heart attack expensive (so much so that I would move to an external keyboard and a solid case for the tablet next time)

For years I have proudly been a single monitor person (as a contractor on a laptop it made sense) but working remotely plus having to now manage a calendar from hell, made me move to multiple monitors, now we are back to a lot of office work I’m finding that I miss it, there are a lot of posh recommendations for USB monitors with fancy features but I just want a second monitor that looks the same and is at the same angle as my laptop, after trying a bunch of them I settled on the ThinkVision M14d 14inch, it is like the classic Thinkpad range, solid, well behaved and just does the job (in addition it comes with an excellent case and is light as a feather), So now when I have space I pack this as well (I would have killed for it back in the training and Salesforce days)

Now on to the tech accessories:

  • For a Power Brick – Omni Mobile 25600 seems to handle all the needs I have, and is about as big as you can easily take on a plane, I also have the Omni 20+ 220v, but found it a bit of an overkill.
  • Powercube Rewireable – One of the most useful bits of tech ever, a power block that means you don’t need to bring multiple travel adaptors with you and is useable for everyday work, I bring mine everywhere, and the fact that it uses a standard C14 socket 2, means that you can get a wide variety of cables and splitters for it.
  • Odd Power Cables – As mentioned above, using the standard C14 connector means you can get adaptors and splitters, the one you can see in the picture is a C14 to C5 3
  • Tech Pouch – Rather than a formal Tech bag I found a wash bag from Eagle creak as done me proud for years now.

  • Decent USB Charger – So many of the apparently “amazing” usb chargers you see advertised on the Internet turn out to be rubbish, they share their full load poorly when multiple devices are plugged in or often even wont fast charge something on their own, the most consistent I have found is the Anker 543 Charger, which in addition is not built into a UK plug which gives me more flexibility.
  • Compact UK power lead –  Used mainly for the USB charger this is a nice compact foldable UK plug cable (they don’t seem to make the UK version any more)
  • Headset – For my work headset I use a Plantronics voyager 5200, its solid and dependable, easy to get replacement ear tips for and to keep charged when you have 10 hours of meetings in a day, only unusual bit is that you don’t use the built in USB Dongle anymore as Bluetooth as improved to such an extent that it has surpassed Plantronics own standard.
  • Power supply – huge power supply brick for clients laptop, boooo!

A ton of different cables and misc. adaptors, considering we are all using USB there still seems to be a lot of different sodding cables to carry. I’m not going to recommend brands and such but a few tips have stood me in good stead.

  1. Carry duplicates of the common ones
  2. If you are an Android person also carry a lightning cable and vs. versa, nothing makes friends faster than a charging cable in need.
  3. For USB-C cables the only ones you can REALLY trust for USB-C to USB-C activity are the thick ones with a 4K video rating, all others will have at least one failing (wont carry 100 watts, wont be recognised, can’t be used for external monitors etc etc), remember USB-C is just a connector format.

I favour trackballs over mice, both for shoulder health and for working on the move, so have used the Logitech trackball for the last 25 years, the current version of the ERGO M575 is the best yet and a good external case keeps it protected.

I always work with a physical notepad. It used to be a moleskin hard shell reporter notepad, but they stopped making that style and it turned out that I could actually get 100 custom made at a fraction of the cost that moleskin used to charge. So that’s what I did. I also use the Analog cards by Ugmonk for day to day task identification. Pen wise I always use a Paper Mate flex grip as its a solid workhorse of a pen.

Here’s where it gets a bit weird. I carry a desktop fan as I overheat in the normal 23 degrees of a standard office, for this I use an old server fan modified to run off USB, because they are far quieter and have far less vibrations than normal fans. You may overheat a lot in the office, but if you bring a fan that makes a hell of a noise, vibrates and annoys your clients and people around you, you are not making any friends.

External Keyboard wise, at home I use a full size Logitech MX keyboard, so it makes sense to keep with the same key feel, so I use the shorter MX Keys Mini, with a third party hard case, given the prices Samsung charge for their tablet keyboards and given the option to purchase again, I would purchase this to control the tablet as well, with the easy swap buttons for controlling multiple machines, it means I can use this with machines both at home and on the move.

Corporate Bits

For some reason no matter how posh and well setup the company is, they never have good conference facilities setup when it actually comes time to do a call or brain storm, so I bring a little kit in a bag with the following in it:

  • PowerConf S3 Speakerphone – A good general purpose speaker and mic. set that can run either via bluetooth or USB off your phone or laptop.
  • Pen set – A good pack of whiteboard pens, but given the nature of a lot of modern whiteboards, remember to swap at least one of them out for a white chalk pen.
  • Wipe set – Often overlooked by facilities and always by people, you need something to clear off your work after the meeting, so a small whiteboard wiper, a cloth and most important a cleaning spray, I have never found a travel set for this but Whoosh do a 8ml screen cleaner refillable spray bottle that you can fill with white board cleaner, and its about the size of a pen so can go in the existing pen Pack.

In conclusion: as you can see, I pack for every eventuality, I have found that the slight ribbing you get where it looks as if you’re packing for the world’s end in an office is far outweighed by the satisfaction that clients get when you simply can cope with everything. Nothing makes you stop work. You just shrug and keep going, as well as carrying enough to help other people and keep the team going at a pinch.

  1. the only one I have ever “successfully” damaged was one I was using to carry a 32kg kettle bell, back and forth to a gym[↩]
  2. Normal people call these “kettle Leads”[↩]
  3. Called cloverleaf or laptop cables[↩]

Painting Guide – Space Marines Chaplain

Posted on by dultoriminis Leave a comment

Painter: Dultoriminis

Model(s): Space Marines Chaplain (old)

Paint(s): Chaos Black Spray, Abaddon Black, Dark Reaper, Fenrisian Grey, Mephiston Red, Carroburg Crimson, Blood Angel Red contrast, Evil Sunz Scarlet, Wild Rider Red, Leadbelcher, Scale Colour – Metal n’ Alchemy – Speed Metal, Retributor Armour, Reikland FleshShade, Liberator Gold, Zandri Dust, Ushabti Bone, Screaming Skull, Rhinox hide, Baharroth Blue, Drakenhof NightShade, Rakarth Flesh, Pallid Wych Flesh, Agrax Earthshade.

Method(s): Spray Chaos Black, for the armour base with a thin layer of Abaddon Black, edge highlight with Dark Reaper and then apply a final minimal highlight with Fenrisian Grey applying only to parts that would be hit by zenithal light source 1.

All Gold parts: Base Retributor Armour, wash with Reikland FleshShade, layer with Retributor Armour avoiding the darkest recesses and highlight with Liberator Gold.

Helmet sculls and bone: base with Zandri Dust, wash with Agrax Earthshade, layer avoiding recesses with Ushabti Bone and highlight with Screaming Skull.

Loincloth scroll: base Rakarth Flesh, wash with Agrax Earthshade and highlight with Pallid Wych Flesh.

Shoulder scrolls: base Baharroth Blue, wash with Drakenhof NightShade and highlight with Baharroth Blue. For text on all scrolls make a mix of Rhinox hide and water roughly 1:3 ratio with a small amount on your brush take your time and brush slow wiggles in vertical lines.

Gun case and eyes: base Mephiston Red, wash Carroburg Crimson, layer Evil Sunz Scarlet, and highlight with Wild Rider Red.

Paint Time: 12-16 hours.

  1. , imagine the sun above, and only highlight where the light from this would reach[↩]

Corporate term: Chinese Report Whispers

Posted on by Mark Myers Leave a comment

Definition:

This is a report presented to directors. But when they ask for justification and the person that generated the source data is dragged in, that person has no idea how the report has produced the numbers the directors are asking about.

Explanation:

These are the inevitable changes when a detailed report designed to be transparent and viewed by subject matter experts gets summarised multiple times by subsequent levels of management on the way up to the top. However these summaries tend to be made by managers wanting to make their report look better rather than accurate, often using a slight more ‘seemly’ term rather than a technical one. This means that over iterations the fundamental meaning of numbers will be changed rendering the report meaningless from its original intention.

 

Disclaimer: As always these posts are not aimed at anyone client or employer and are just my personal observations over a lifetime of dealing with both management and frontline associates.

Painting Guide – Blackstone Fortress – Aradia Mudellan – Primaris Psyker

Posted on by dultoriminis Leave a comment

 

Painter: Dultoriminis

Model(s): Blackstone Fortress Escalation (Out of print)

Paint(s): Chaos Black Spray, Abaddon Black, Iron Warriors, Nuln Oil, Iron Hands Steel, Retributor Armour, Liberator Gold, Rakarth Flesh, Steel Legion Drab, Screaming Skull, Skavebblight Dinge, Caliban Green, Ulthuan Grey, White Scar, Bugmans Glow, Cadian Fleshtone, Kislev Flesh, Khorne Red, Baharroth Blue, Drakenhof NightShade.

Method(s):

Skin: Base: Bugmans Glow, Wash: Reikland FleshShade, Layer: Cadian Fleshtone avoiding the darkest recesses, Highlight: Kislev Flesh. for the eyes base Baharroth Blue and apply a very gentle wash of Drakenhof NightShade. paint metal implants with Iron Warriors.

Jacket:, trousers, boots, and gloves are all nice and easy. Base jacket with Steel Legion Drab, trousers with Skavebblight Dinge, and boots/gloves with Abaddon Black. For highlight add a little white to each of the colours and apply an edge highlight respectively. The inside of the jacket can just be based with Khorne Red we are not going to highlight this as it is on the underside and mostly unseen. sash should be based in Ulthuan Grey and highlighted with White Scar, tips of the sash painted in exactly the same way as the jacket. the loin cloth robe should be based in Caliban Green and treated again the same way as the jacket and trousers. add a little white to your green and highlight with this.

For armour I went with a dark tint as I feel it makes the armour orbs (this is clearly the correct name for them) pop a little more. base in Iron Warriors, wash with Nuln Oil and finally highlight with Iron Hands Steel. orbs painted the same way as eyes above except lastly add a little flick in the bottom corner of white and a dot in each opposite corner to give a lens flair look. Finally gold trim based with Retributor Armour and highlighted with Liberator Gold.

Paint Time: 6-8hours

What getting your energy back sounds like

Posted on by Mark Myers Leave a comment

I have mentioned burnout on this blog before, but you can be utterly exhausted and still not burn out, indeed some people don’t have that option and just keep going come what may, 1 Now many people will give you ways to identify how you know you are exhausted and warning signs and such, but say you take a holiday or a break or even a change, how do you know when you have recovered? not having a firm description will often lead people to think they are fixed when they are not.

To me the best description has always come from the book ‘Kim’ by Rudyard Kipling, after Kim has recovered from both physical and mental exhaustion:

“and with an almost audible click he felt the wheels of his being lock up anew on the world without. Things that rode meaningless on the eyeball an instant before slid into proper proportion. Roads were meant to be walked upon, houses to be lived in, cattle to be driven, fields to be tilled, and men and women to be talked to. They were all real and true—solidly planted upon the feet—perfectly comprehensible—clay of his clay, neither more nor less. He shook himself like a dog with a flea in his ear, and rambled out of the gate. “

Sometimes the classics are classics for a reason.

 

  1. I always remember going to the office at 6am for years, watching the shift change at the main post office in Farringdon as I walked past, and seeing the utterly exhausted expressions of those who were finishing a night shift else where and were then moving on to their next job at the post office knowing, they did this week in week out.. so I would shut the hell up and get back to my corporate job knowing it could have been a hell of a lot worse.[↩]