Vim (for non-programmers) Section DCLXVI: Automating Making a To-List and Crossing Off Make a To-Do List on Your To-Do List Automatically

Vim (for non-programmers) Section DCLXVI: Automating Making a To-List and Crossing Off Make a To-Do List on Your To-Do List Automatically OR So...I wrote a thing...the thing is a plugin, sort of

Where notebooks and calendars and computers meet is ... well, lots of different places. But one place they meet is at work. Thus it did come to pass that I felt the need to take a daily notebook calendaring exercise and turn it into something that could be replicated on my computer. Which brings us to a thing I wrote, entitled "todotxt.vim", a "plugin" for the Vim text editor, which promises little and delivers less.

As it says in the help file I wrote (lol):

When I start work each day, it makes sense for me to:

1. Start a new page in my work notebook for that day
2. List my meetings for the day (at the top of the page, in order)
3. List my tasks for the day (to use the page efficiently, I populate the tasks starting at the bottom of the page, but I don't generally order them or worry about grouping or managing them)

This plugin creates a digital version of that page of my notebook, with a new file for each day.

The premise of the plugin is that a list of the things you have to do is a good thing to have. The list might as well be in plain text, so you can look at it on pretty much any device, and if it's in plain text, I might as well be able to use the fancy special features of my favorite text editing program, Vim to edit it. I find it helpful to be able to look back and see what I did on a given day, so a big piece of the "functionality" involves knowing what day it is and making a special file for that day. Since I don't always finish everything I want to do on a given day (lol), another big piece of the "functionality" involves looking at a specified previous day and pulling the un-done tasks from that day to the current day. There's also a tiny bit of attention paid to making it look quasi-nice (using Vim's syntax formatting).

Anyway, if you want to try this, there's a link to the files here:

• Big zip file of everything

And while the file itself is more or less definitive, and can be read in a text editor by clicking here, the help file may be more illustrative, so I have pasted it in below. Sorry about the formatting below. If you hate it, click the link, I guess. NOTE: where it says something like \tadd you should replace \ with leader in angle brackets.

*todotxt.txt* for Vim version 7.4 and greater Last change: 2020 Nov 4

Adds limited functionality and syntax highlighting for plain-text to-do files
accessed in Vim.

================================================================================
CONTENTS *todotxtcontents*

1. Introduction ................ |todotxt-introduction|
2. Installation ................ |todotxt-installation|
3. Usage ....................... |todotxt-usage|
4. Mappings .................... |todotxt-mappings|
5. Configuration ............... |todotxt-config|
6. License ..................... |todotxt-license|
7. Bugs, Version, and To-Dos ... |todotxt-bugs|
8. Contributing ................ |todotxt-contributing|
9. Changelog ................... |todotxt-changelog|
10. Credits .................... |todotxt-credits|


================================================================================
Section 1: Introduction *todotxt-introduction*

This is a very simple plugin for creating, using, updating, and (very very
lightly) tracking to-do files in plain text. Syntax highlighting and a few
mappings make the to-do list easier to look at and easier to use.

The basic idea is to start your workday with a file that has the following in
it:

By default, when the empty file is loaded at the beginning of the day, the
plugin will ask if there is a previous file to check for tasks that are not
marked as done. This will usually be the previous workday's file. If the

specified file has tasks not marked as done, those tasks will be added to the
current day's file, along the lines of the following.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| # Today's Date |
| # Meetings |
| |
| --- |
| |
| # Tasks |
| |
| - [ ] McDonalds 2020-11-04 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

To add a task, use \tadd to enter a date-stamped task on the line under
the cursor along the following lines.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| # Today's Date |
| # Meetings |
| |
| --- |
| |
| # Tasks |
| |
| - [ ] McDonalds 2020-11-04 |
| - [ ] Eat Hot Chip 2020-11-05 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

More tasks can be added to the line under the cursor.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| # Today's Date |
| # Meetings |
| |
| --- |
| |
| # Tasks |
| |
| - [ ] McDonalds 2020-11-04 |
| - [ ] Eat Hot Chip 2020-11-05 |
| - [ ] Charge Phone 2020-11-05 |
| - [ ] Lie 2020-11-05 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Meetings work similarly, but instead of a datestamp that is added
automatically, meetings ask you to enter a time. Once added, it looks
something like the following. The command for this is \madd.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| # Today's Date |
| # Meetings |
| - [ ] Twerk Noonish? |
| |
| --- |
| |
| # Tasks |
| |
| - [ ] McDonalds 2020-11-05 |
| - [ ] Eat Hot Chip 2020-11-05 |
| - [ ] Charge Phone 2020-11-05 |
| - [ ] Lie 2020-11-05 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Adding tasks and meetings manually can be done throughout the day.

To make a file for the day, \logit is used. This will create a file
with a datestamp in the filename for easy sorting, and to make it simple to
pull the undone tasks from earlier files.

To mark a meeting or task as done, put the cursor on the line of the meeting
or task and enter \done. This will have an effect like the following.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| # Today's Date |
| # Meetings |
| - [ ] Twerk Noonish? |
| |
| --- |
| |
| # Tasks |
| |
| - [X] McDonalds 2020-11-05 |
| - [ ] Eat Hot Chip 2020-11-05 |
| - [X] Charge Phone 2020-11-05 |
| - [X] Lie 2020-11-05 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Sometimes a meeting will be cancelled or you will decide to not do a task in a
way you want to document (and not carry the task forward to future days). To
do this, enter the command \skip, which will have an effect like the
following.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| # Today's Date |
| # Meetings |
| |
| |
| --- |
| |
| # Tasks |
| |
| - [X] McDonalds 2020-11-05 |
| - [ ] Eat Hot Chip 2020-11-05 |
| - [X] Charge Phone 2020-11-05 |
| - [X] Lie 2020-11-05 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

This doesn't look very interesting in a help file, but the plugin uses
Markdown formatting to make list items and HTML comments -- like the skipped
meeting above -- visually distinctive. Since the meetings and tasks are added
on the line under the cursor, the line the cursor is on is also highlighted.

To-do-specific functions are mostly handled with mappings. Everything else
about the file is meant to be handled using Vim's built-in capabilities. For
more details, see the credits section.


================================================================================
Section 2: Installation *todotxt-installation*

I think this will work with Pathogen? I'm not sure: I don't use Pathogen.
What I would do is:
1. Put the todotxt.vim file somewhere in your plugins folder
2. Make a todo directory somewhere that makes sense to you
3. Add the following to your .vimrc file. >
augroup filetype_todo
autocmd!
autocmd BufNewFile */todotxt/*todo*.txt :source path/to/todotxt.vim
autocmd BufNewFile */todotxt/*todo*.txt :Todotxtstartup
augroup END
<

Or you could just dump the whole todotxt.vim file into your .vimrc...


================================================================================
Section 3: Usage *todotxt-usage*

This is an opinionated little plugin. It is based on a small set of (my)
practices and makes certain assumptions. If those practices and assumptions
don't work for you, this plugin is almost certainly not going to work for you
either (whether or not I've actually made it functional).

Practices: When I start work each day, it makes sense for me to:
1. Start a new page in my work notebook for that day
2. List my meetings for the day (at the top of the page, in order)
3. List my tasks for the day (to use the page efficiently, I populate the
tasks starting at the bottom of the page, but I don't generally order them or
worry about grouping or managing them)

This plugin creates a digital version of that page of my notebook, with a new
file for each day.

Assumptions:
1. You want to do something (very) like the practices above
2. You want to use Vim to edit to-do files
3. You're okay managing your own files

The way todotxt.txt expects you to use it is:
1. Each day, use the command line to tell Vim to create a file with "todo"
(without the quotes) in its filename and the extension .txt in a folder with
"todo" (without the quotes) in its path
2. Tell todotxt.txt to import undone tasks from a specified previous day (or,
in a very special situation, a lot of days)
3. Add your meetings and tasks over the course of the day
4. Mark meetings and tasks done over the course of the day
5. Save a copy of the list for reference later
6. Repeat 1-5 the next day
7. Every so often (once a month would make a lot of sense) move all the old
daily files into a sub-folder

To make 2, 3, 4, and 5 easier, there are mappings. To make the file easier to
look at, it uses syntax highlighting. That's it. That's all it does. It
should save you some typing of items from day-to-day if on Day 2, you have
some tasks you didn't complete on Day 1, and it should look better than a raw
text file. Otherwise, you're on your own.


================================================================================
Section 4: Mappings *todotxt-mappings*

This is kind of the meat of the plugin, in a weird way. Of course, if you're
a Vim user looking for plugins, you probably have a ton of your own mappings,
which is a problem, because I cannot for the life of me figure out all the
things I'm supposed to do to make sure this plugin's mappings aren't going to
clobber yours. Sorry. To make things easier, I've listed them all below. To
make things less dangerous, I've made them all pretty long.

Type: To: ~
\tadd Add a new task
\madd Add a new meeting
\done Mark a task or meeting accomplished
\skip Mark a meeting or task skipped
\logit Write a file with the current date in the filename
\grabit Pull in undone things from a specified file
\graball Pull in undone things from all files in the folder

graball is meant for big clean-up jobs and should rarely be used. All others
are meant for use daily (logit) or more often (tadd, madd, done, skip). grabit
fires automatically when you open the file, but can be used to add days one at
a time, if needed.


================================================================================
Section 5: Configuration *todotxt-config*

There aren't configuration options at this time. If you want a different path
or a different filename or a different type of syntax highlighting, you can
edit the todotxt.vim file to suit your preferences (but don't blame me if
something goes wrong).


================================================================================
Section 6: License *todotxt-license*

This file is placed in the public domain. But you shouldn't use it if you
aren't literally me.


================================================================================
Section 7: Bugs *todotxt-bugs*

God, there are probably a million bugs. If you find one, shoot me an email at
cfcollision@gmail.com, please! If you fix it, that's even better.

I am having enormous trouble with the apparently important "avoid loading the
file multiple times per buffer" issue, so frequently you may need to manually
set filetype to markdown, and I have no idea why. It loads other shit, but
not the filetype setting and I cannot figure out why that might be. For now,
I just have the entire "1. Filetype Protections from usr_41.txt" section
commented out because I can't make it work properly.

Tasks and meetings are added under the cursor. This is a little clunky, but
since Vim makes it easy to put the cursor where we want it, we can accept this mild inconvenience.

Not a bug, but a behavior: "logit" will (a) overwrite any previous version of
the file you made that day and (b) silently enter the current day if you start
up todotxt.vim on one day but use "logitlogit" on a different day.

"skip" marks things done, so they do not carry over into following days. This
is deliberate, but may not be what you want. My usage is to use "skipskip" only
for meetings that were cancelled, not for tasks I have chosen to leave undone;
those, I would usually allow to carry forward to the next day (and the next
day's file) and simply delete if need be, or use "skipskip" and add a comment
about why I had left the task undone.

This is tested on my home laptop, running Ubuntu 16.4, and my work MacBook.
It has NOT been tested on any Windows machine and probably won't work on one.

This works on Vim version 7.4 on Ubuntu 16.4 and should work on newer
versions. I think it works on Vim version 8.0 on my work MacBook.

Todo:
1. Sorting tasks by datestamp would be pretty cool
2. Auto-sorting meetings by time would also be pretty cool
3. Getting gVim to work would also be sweet (setting pwd on BufNew or
something?)
4. Add menus?
5. Sweet README.md file?
6. Smart enough to check more than one file?
7. Sweep done tasks (but not meetings) to the bottom of the file and hide them
(comment them out or fold them?)
8. Cleverly fold the todotxt.vim file using blank lines?
9. Shortening everything so I could have a cal in there
10. Making long lines work better and not just let them scroll off
endlessly?

================================================================================
Section 8: Contributing *todotxt-contributing*

It is unlikely that this will be useful enough to any other human to merit any
contributions. If you tweak it to your liking, feel free to shoot me an
email about your tweak. If you are okay with me adopting your tweak, please
say so.


================================================================================
Section 9: Changelog *todotxt-changelog*

This document is for plugin version 0.2.1, first even potentially shareable
version, with broken stuff commented out.


================================================================================
Section 10: Credits *todotxt-credits*

This is inspired by three things:
1. Bullet journal practice
2. Hipster PDA practice (documentation here:
http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/03/introducing-the-hipster-pda_ )
3. Steve Losh's program t: "a command-line todo list manager for people who
want to FINISH tasks, not organize them" ... "it does the simplest thing that
could possibly work" ... "hacked together in a couple nights to fit my needs"
with more documentation available here:
https://stevelosh.com/projects/t/

The idea is to mirror in plain text files my particular implementation of
ideas adopted from bullet journaling and the hipster PDA. In particular:
1. Treating a day as a container for the stuff I have to do that day, not
distinguishing between tasks and meetings, because they are both things I have
to do on a given day
2. Devoting a page in a notebook to that day, so everything is available at a
glance
3. Marking things done when done
4. Carrying over things to the next day if they are not done

Losh's program did a lot of things I found interesting, especially with very
short commands to do useful things, but had certain features that didn't work
well for my needs, including a dependency on Python and a need to make
command-line aliases for things. His repeated comment "need to do something?
open it in a text editor" inspired me to harness Vim's capacities and make Vim
the home for the whole thing. Also I have one need his program does not allow
for, which is an occasional but very important need to document what I did on
a given day or set of days: this implies a daily log of some kind. Finally,
hell, sometimes I do want to organize my tasks, not finish them. (And a lot
of his functionality is built around preventing multiple users or computers
clobbering one file, which is not a need I have.)

So, I hacked something together over the course of a couple days, test-drove
it and amended it.

His way -- t -- is almost certainly better, and I encourage you to try it out
rather than muck around with this.

vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl:

Previous entries in Vim (for non-programmers):

1. Vim (for non-programmers) Chapter O (NOT 0), recipes which are quick and dirty, example six: Let's Make a Time-Stamped Log of Stuff We Read Online and Want to Have a List Of; Hey, Guess What? I Got a Lot of This from Chris Toomey (heart-eyes emoji)
2. Vim (for non-programmers) Part Three: Refactoring my _vimrc File; Chapter Five: Correct Easy Link Addition (Correcting My Misreading of Steve Losh)
3. Vim (for non-programmers) Part Three: Refactoring my .vimrc File, Chapter Five; Correct Easy Markup of Markdown Headlines (Building on Chris Toomey's "Your First Vim Plugin")
4. Vim (for non-programmers) Chapter O (NOT 0), recipes which are quick and dirty, example two: Dumping Out the Recommendations from IDEOTVPod into One File

Timbuk2 Especial Claro Review: Not for Me, but Great Customer Service Wins the Day

A while back, I covered my abiding respect and affection for my Jandd Hurricane messenger bag. It was and is the stoutest and most robust bag I've owned—but it was really starting to show the wear that comes with age, and it came time to find a replacement daily driver. This is not that story.

This story lives somewhere between the story of the Jandd—a story about an adequately designed and beautifully built object—and the story of the U-Turn Audio—a story about a maybe-adequate object betrayed by abysmal customer service. This story is about the Timbuk2 Especial Claro.

Going out into the world for a new bag was thrilling and stressful. I love that kind of shopping: zooming in to check pocket details; stroking my chin over fabric types; trying to parse "weather resistant" vs. "waterproof"; squinting at different volumes and weights. But it's stressful, because I haven't been on the market for a really long time. "Ich kenne mich nicht aus", as Wittgenstein said, when he was looking to buy a new bike bag. So I spent untold hours on the internet, and more than a few hours boring the bejeezus out of Noodles talking about bags. I checked every site I could find—bag sites, review sites, shopping sites, everything. I pestered my friends with late-night texes about their bag and life choices. I stared at every person carrying a bag within eyeshot, judging, assessing, creeping the fuck out (probably).

Eventually, the planets aligned and I realized something incredibly important: I have insane numbers of coupons for ten wing-wangs off at LL Bean and those coupons stack. This means I could throw coupons at a purchase until I ran out of coupons or until the remaining charge was less than ten wing-wangs! Also? I get free shipping from Bean, because I am secretly an important man.

Let's take a secretly an important man break!

What all this meant was that I could burn a bunch of coupons and get a new bike bag for nine wing-wangs. Also the copy around it said specifically that it's for Serious Cyclists—and who's more serious a cyclist than me!? Nobody, that's who.

And that is how the Especial Claro entered my life. It was so cool looking! A little too stylish for me, probably, but I really enjoyed wearing it, carrying it, fiddling with it, looking at it, talking about it...I kind of felt like an early William Gibson character. (The "hammered carbon" look feels like a very specific alternate future I wish I inhabited sometimes.) But all was not well in this romance for the ages. Enter: writing letter to Timbuk2's customer support team.

I recently bought (and came to really like) a Medium Especial Claro. I really liked how light it was, and I appreciated its minimal approach to organizational features and pockets -- I tend to packrat a LOT of stuff, so the more pockets I have at my disposal, the more I carry with me everywhere, which isn't actually helpful. Plus I really liked its style: I'm an office drone, and the bag matched that vibe, but with a little flair / style that made me feel like I wasn't JUST an office drone.

But after less than two weeks, the seams under the shoulder strap have started to tear loose. I never carried any kind of load I consider out of line for a messenger bag -- I'd guess a 12-pack of Tecate + a couple bottles of fizzy water and a U-Lock would have been the heaviest load. I commute exclusively by bike, and ride everywhere I go, and I've been using a giant Jandd bag for years, and that kind of load would normally go on top of my everyday carry without any problems. (I had to take everything out to make that load fit the Claro, and it was a pretty tight fit.)

So my question is this: Is the Classic Messenger a better choice for me? I.e., will it allow me to carry the stuff I tend to carry on a daily basis without structural failure?
OR
Should I just go for another Claro and adapt my habits to the bag rather than assuming the bag will adapt to whatever I throw at (or in) it? (This would be the case if the Classic Messenger had about the same carrying capacity and build quality -- because if those things are equal, I much prefer the style and waterproofness of the Claro.) Thanks! Sorry for the novel's worth of backstory and detail, but as somebody who really does live on his bike, I have...well, I have special needs.

They got back to me v. quickly.

Hey [Fat],

Thank you for contacting Timbuk2.

Sorry to hear that your bag wasn't working like it should, can you shoot over an image of the issue so we can take a look?

In regards to your product question, the Classic Messenger Bag will do the trick. A lot of the colorways are made from Cordura Nylon and that is a top of the line Cordura that offers lightness and water protection!

If you grab a medium you will be able to easily fit a 12 pack, fizzee water, and U Lock...I speak from experience.

It will also be able to hold the same amount of weight, if not, more.

It is more likely to get water inside the main bucket if your bag is over stuffed, but the fold over flap on this bag also has water wings so water is less likely to dribble in.

Just let us know if there's anything else I can help with or answer,

Your pals @ Timbuk2
Customer Service

This is pretty much exactly what I wanted to hear.

This is totally helpful -- thank you VERY much! I definitely appreciate it. You should tell your boss that this was exactly the response I was hoping for, too! I'll go back to the store where I picked this up and swop out the Claro for the Classic...

I've attached a couple images of the fraying (both sides). Hope they help! The quarter was just for scale.

The story is pretty much over, but one line from their next email really made me laugh, so I'm including it here.

Hey [Fat],

Thanks for shooting over those images. That's definitely odd and not the type of quality that Timbuk2 is known for. Your Claro should have held up a lot better. I'm going to make sure our product design team gets these photos.

If for some reason the store cannot help with the swap, please let us know. We want to make sure you get the best bag that will meet your needs and let you enjoy your Tecate without any worries.

Cheers!

I like a company that demonstrates attention to detail at every step: from educating me about fabrics (never buy anything that's not Cordura: noted!) to keeping an eye on what I like to drink (Tecate and fizzy water, mainly). I like a company that takes Tecate as seriously as I do, as seriously as Kowloon Walled City takes Tecate—and tone. I like Timbuk2. I sent the Especial Claro back and have been using the Classic Messenger for a couple weeks. It's a good solution for me. But that's a story for a different time.

U-Turn Audio makes a terrible product and has terrible customer service

Last year around this time, I started to feel a major bite: I no longer had a working turntable, and that's not how I like to spin roll. I looked around a little bit, asked some friends, and decided to try the U-Turn Orbit. Big mistake.

The first day I had it, I sent the following email to my pals:

I took a flyer on a hipster turntable and there's some shit they did that makes it kinda frustrating:

• no autoreturn, meaning I can't pass out to a record
• switch between 33 & 45 by means of touching the belt, meaning a nacho enthusiast like me will inevitably fuck up the belt and platter with filth
  [Ed. Note: I didn't tell these guys that I am also really really ineptly frustratingly bad at changing between 33 & 45 and that when I try it, the belt invariably falls off a couple times before I can get everything lined up correctly]
• needs a preamp (because I have a second-rate amp), and the one they sell can't be turned on and off, meaning an incredibly bright blue LED burning at my eyeballs, and meaning...uh, shit, I guess I got to unplug it when I go to bed??
• dust cover isn't counterbalanced, so it is either down or up at a 90-degree

Keep an eye on that preamp. It figures in the next email I had to send about this turntable—this email, I sent to the manufacturer.

Hi --

I am extremely frustrated with your product. I bought it, used it maybe twice, and then put it on the shelf for a while, unplugging the preamp, because it has no power switch and I

1. didn't see why it should be sucking electricity all the time
2. didn't want to see the god damned LED all the time
3. thought it might overheat/burn out if I left it plugged in

I tried to use the turntable tonight, and the preamp is apparently dead. I tried plugging the AC adaptor into multiple different outlets to zero effect. The turntable itself appears to work as well as it ever did -- no auto-return, and the belt falls off all the god damned time, but the platter spins. Again: I am extremely frustrated. And disappointed. And angry.

What do you recommend I do? Will you make this right and at the very least replace the preamp for free? Please let me know.

yours, a person who really wanted to listen to some records tonight, and can't,

And here is the response I got.

Sorry to hear you are experiencing some difficulties. Please note that we are not the manufacturers of the ART brand DJ preamp. I also agree that the LED is irritating, although it is worth mentioning that it does consume very little power, so I wouldn't worry about (1) or (3) - most preamps are designed to be left on. If you ship us back the preamp we can take a look at it and will send you a replacement (pre-owned) if necessary. This is a courtesy, as we are not the manufacturers of this item. [Ed. Note: you sold me the item, dude.]

Alternatively, I imagine that this might be a power adapter issue. Can you try quickly using the Orbit's adapter to connect the preamp and see if that gives it power? If it's just the adapter we can send a new one.

The Orbit is a fully manual turntable so there is no auto-return. [Ed. Note: yes, this is what I'm complaining about.]

There is an auto-lift device called the Q UP that you can purchase and install if you would like similar functionality: http://www.amazon.com/Q-UP-QUP-Up-Tonearm/dp/B008OAMD26. [Ed. Note: sweet upsell. Exactly what a disappointed, frustrated customer is most interested in.]

Can you please describe the belt falling off - when exactly does it fall off (during play or installation)? This should not be happening and if you provide more information we would be happy to look into this for you.

I didn't get back to him, because I know when I've been blown off. U-Turn Audio never followed up, presumably because they know when they're not going to be able to upsell their way out of their "stupid, pretentious instance[s] of 'design' as a noun overwhelming the verb-process of designing something". They wanted to have something "minimal", so they sell a turntable that doesn't have autoreturn, or a dust cover that's functional, a turntable that makes you handle the stretchable, finger-oil sensitive drive belt every time you want to change the speed. And they back it up with the commitment to customer service that says "Hey, man, sure, the thing we sold you broke after a week of minimal use, but we didn't make it, so if you want it to be replaced...we'll send you a used one and act like we're doing you a favor while we do it." So fuck them; fuck U-Turn Audio. If you see a product by U-Turn Audio, do yourself a favor: do a U-Turn. Walk away and find something you will enjoy using, made by people who do not loathe you.

Jandd Hurricane Iniki Messenger Bag

0. Introductionalizing Maunderings / Methodological Preliminaries / Theoretical Foundations

Rain. It was rain that brought Jandd into my life. I'd quit the rains of Portland for California sunshine, but a year or so in, my secondhand first-generation Timbuktu was disintegrating badly, and my college-era Bean Turbo Transit pack had proven itself inadequate against hard winter precipitation. I was working 10 hours of overtime a week to be able to afford not hating every second I wasn't at work: the winter had begun with me treating myself to the then-new Chinese Democracy, which I could barely afford. —I knew I needed the bro price on whatever I tried to buy, so I just asked a then-popular social networking Web site if anybody knew about a strongly weatherproof bag option for bike riding they could help hook me up with.

My pal Mike came through. Didn't get to choose a color, but I did get to specify "biggest available", and one day in what I remember as early April of 2010 (but was actually 14may2009), I got the package, and took it to Bushrod Park in Berkeley to drink sunshine beer after work and open it up.

I've used it daily, with a couple of breaks here and there, since. The bag is a Jandd Hurricane Iniki. It's in a colorway approximating blue/beige, which is probably described as "thick ocean/mushroom" or "sex iris/olive" on the site. (I looked it up: midnight/bark.) It's still holding up well, still in daily use. It's got some significant cosmetic defects at this point, and at least some functional wear that indicates that, while it's lasted 5+ years to this point, it's not going to last another five. Or anyway suggests it won't. The thing has surprised me before.

This review is of a messenger bag, judged from the point of view of a bike rider. I ride exclusively: my concerns are how the bag works when I'm no the bike, when I'm carrying the bike (up stairs, say), when I'm locking up the bike. My uses for the bag are carrying things to and from work (office job) or my girlfriend's house, or the grocery store, or a ride to the beach for a picnic, or the bar, or the coffee shop, or wherever. The bag's performance outdoors is all I really care about, not its appearance indoors. It's worth noting that I carry a lot of shit on a day-to-day basis. Including but not limited to: shaving kit; Nalgene; coffee thermos; notebook/pens; book or kindle plus the new LRB or Harper's; phone charger; walkman; U-lock and cable lock; spare handkerchief and chamois; sunglasses; hat; next day's socks/underwear/work shirt; lights/gloves/pants clip; lunch; layer against the weather. I mention all this because it's a specific perspective on a specific set of requirements: most bag reviews I see seem to site the bag in the passenger seat of a car, or on a bus, and in an office; these reviews thus don't speak at all to my concerns. This review is also based on a quantity of experience most reviews don't have.

The bag is big. It holds a lot.

It's not too uncomfortable to carry heavy loads. I do my grocery runs with it, which means a lot of canned goods (beans) and beer (I like beer), and it's fine. (Those heavy loads are starting to pull the strap through the body of the bag, and that's what killed the Timbuktu.)

It's fairly waterproof. When the rain really comes down, the seam across the top, holding the rain flap to the body of the bag, leaks. There's a drawstring inside the body of the bag that's meant to close the bag against rain, but it's unfortunately prone to capillary action, which draws water into the bag. The rain flap and the body also aren't fitted to each other that well: there's often a gap open at each end, which is another rain problem.

The lining is thick and black and helps ensure that the bag is waterproof—or at least -resistant. But I will say that the white lining I see on my friends' bags is awesome, and I'm jealous, because it's easier for them to find shit in their bags than it is for me in mine, particularly in low-light conditions. (If you don't think I care about finding things in low-light conditions, you don't know me—and you don't know Mike Watt:

The pattern of pocket fabric should be at a 45-degree angle from the shirt's front pattern so you can find them in low-light conditions. Also mandatory, dual pockets and button-down flaps — dropping stuff out of my pocket and plumber's crack are my most embarrassing things on stage.

The lining on the storm flap is peeling badly. This is a very minor functional issue, so far at least, but it is a quite significant aesthetic issue.

There are thin leather discs sewn over the four bottom corners. They don't look great, but they are great. A wonderful idea that probably adds a year to the bag's life all by itself.

(The bag loaded.)

(The bag partially unloaded.)

(The bag's load. NOTE: this load was in addition to the daily carry.)

1. Some Minor Flaws

Most of the design elements are good. It's sound against the sky-wet; it's strong with the heavy; it's made out of phenomenally, ridiculously durable materials. But it also lags behind more modern bags in some important ways. I suspect it wasn't designed by somebody who actually uses a bag like this. It's heavy, but it's floppy, not stiff: it won't stand up on its own, and it doesn't really hold its shape very well. The bottom of the bag is square: just square enough to beg for things to fall all around it, but not square enough to be a platform for the bag and its contents to stand up. This matters because it makes the bag much harder to use. With a light load, you have to strap the bag very tightly to your body to keep things from moving around. (I.e., your thermos or bike lock ending up pushing directly into your kidneys or back.) This means that the bag's too tight to get into in the intended way: swinging it around your body and opening up the flap. Instead, you have to loosen the bag a bunch, which lets the contents shift around—hello again, bike lock! How pleasing it is to feel you jabbing my trunk again. Also when things shift around, they snag each other when you try to pull one or another thing out of the bag: your lock will snag your book, and it will fall on the ground, and you will curse.

The pockets play into this issue. Inside the body of the bag, there's a panel on which are mounted two pen pockets, a glasses case pocket, and two trade-paperback (slash bike lock) pockets. I use one of the trade paperback pockets as a bike lock pocket, but gravity and the bag's floppiness makes the lock weigh the bag's opening shut: the whole bag just collapses in on itself. (This also more or less happens if you throw a nice, heavy book into one or more of those bigger pockets, which you will want to do, because putting a book naked into the gaping maw of a bike bag is a good way to Beat That Book Absolutely To Shit.) This makes the bag harder to load, unload, use, etc.

Outside the body of the bag, there are two more pockets. One has a bunch of pen slots, which is good. I love pen slots. This one is good for your walkman, cigs, lighter, tampons, sundries. On that pocket's face is a zippered pocket. The zipper comes with a "stealth pull"—a strip of fabric, instead of a rattly-jangly metal tab to yank upon. This is pretty great! It's light and it's quiet. But it's also long enough to reach, and stick upon, and get torn up by, the hook side of the hook-and-loop closure stuff. Frustrating! Slightly bad design: who wants one part of their bag to get stuck on another? Who wants one part of their bag to fray another? Also: putting stuff in this zippered pocket will make it hard to put things into the pen slots. This is annoying.

Another problem involves the reflective strip. It's designed to reflect headlights and to be a mounting point for a flashy light. But if the bag is on the back of a human on a bike, the strip, or a light attached to, will point to the sky. Completely useless. I have actually had cars stop and stop me to tell me they couldn't see my light or reflectors.

2. Accessories Are Fun

There are a lot of accessories available and I've used a bunch of them.

• Computer Sleeve
  Sleeve for a laptop. It works well! For a long time, I kept it in my bag to add Structure, and to protect reading materials, (like my precious magazines) and to free up the front internal pockets: with this thing in there, you can tuck your bike locks in between the sleeve and your back, and they don't snag the rest of the bag's contents. But it's heavy, and it's bulk, so I quit carrying it when I wasn't carrying a laptop.
• Reflective Strips
  Essentially a necessity, given the reflective strip's problematic (useless) placement. They mostly work okay, though mounting them on the bag's compression straps adds some moving parts to the mechanism of locking down the rain flap and seems to make the buckles looser. I've lost at least one buckle, and at least one of the reflective strips.
• Stuff Sack
  I use these to keep my work shirts clean and wrinkly when I ride to work. They're thick and stout and they keep coffee drips off of my plaids.
• Pant Cuff Savior
  I didn't really want to buy this: my preferred way to keep my jeans off of my chain is this beautiful stainless steel C that I picked up in Portland and am terrified of losing, but that C isn't actually big and strong enough to handle both thick books and thick expensive denim, which combination I deploy kind of a lot. It's weird to call out something like this as particularly good, but this ankle strap is basically perfect. Ugly as sin and twice as strong, perfect for its function.
• Seat Bag
  This is how I know some of Jandd's design deserves to be held to a higher standard: while this is heavy and arguably overbuilt, it's got a light-colored lining, unlike the bags. I don't use it often, because leaving things attached to your bike is a good way to get them stolen, but it's great for what it is. (A fun alternative review is here.)
• Strap Pouch
  Just picked this up, and it's good. It's hot here, often, and I like to ride with a walkman in—this lets me put that walkman someplace besides a shirt with a pocket, saving me a layer and some sweat. Not sure it's waterproof, but otherwise it's smart: well built, well designed. Works.

3. Conclusionary Expansions

Every Jandd product I've bought shows up with a little card attached. One of the things the card says is:

At Jandd Mountaineering our primary objectives are in this order: functional, strength and design, and aesthetic appearance. Endless craftsmanship and attention to detail can be seen throughout each product. We are proud to say that we have the finest packs around.

I think Jandd mostly hits the marks they're aiming for. Mostly. The craftsmanship is more than evident: the materials they use and the techniques for assembling those materials are matchless. The aesthetics take a back seat, but the colors are quiet and attractive, the lines well-suited for the purpose. All this means that the durability and most of the functionality is off the charts.

But the day-to-day use is often marked with frustration, and this is because some of the design is amateurish. Small bonuses, like a white lining, are nowhere to be found. Errors persist that testing or experience would have revealed, like the useless reflective strip. Actual usability is sometimes lacking, as in the shapeless bag and the problem of hoisting out one and only one item.

I spend a lot of time looking at and for other bags. I have used this one, and used it hard, for around 1,500 days, and I have often been very frustrated with it. That said, I have a deep reservoir of affection for it: around the edges of this bag lurk the sloppy brushstrokes of amateurism, to be sure, but the center of the object is strong and full-hearted and incredibly well-intentioned. It's a bag I think about, but it's a bag I never have to worry about. My next bike bag is probably a year or more away, and it will almost certainly be another Jandd Hurricane Iniki, as it is, I judge, impossible to get a bag of higher quality for anything close to the price. Why would I buy anything else?

top ten for 2009

In no particular order, just as they occur to me.

1. City of Saints and Madmen and Shreik: An Afterword by Jeff Vandermeer

2. The Year of Our War and No Present Like Time by Steph Swainston

3. Perdido Street Station by China Mieville

The first 3 there are basically the canon 'New Weird' writers/books, but these books/authors are some great reasons why its probably fair to say my preferred reading genre is more fantasy than scifi these days.

4. Mother London by Michael Moorcock

This book cements Moorcock at the center of my literary universe, a sun of impossible size and brightness.

5. Dandy in the Underworld by T. Rex

2009 involved a lot of Marc Bolan, the adding of the entire main T.Rex discography to my personal collection, in fact. But that album, that song, his last, I dunno, I guess there's some 12 or 13 year old boy I used to be that still says this is sorta what rock and roll is/was supposed to be like. Its sentimentality but you also suspect sneakily something else is there, something simpler and pure that can't be found anymore.

6. Slade in Flame by Slade

Slade at their peak are great and Slayed? and Slade Alive and the singles from before Slade in Flame ('Cuz I Luv U', etc) are also great but Slade in Flame is a tour de force.

7. Dr. Who DVDs from Multnomah County Library

Support your public library! I've been watching the available smattering of John Pertwee episodes pell mell, but MCPL has a strong selection of the Tom Baker years which I've been doing my darnedest to watch chronologically. Unfortunately they do not have the very first story i ever saw ('Underworld') which I am not even sure is available on DVD (reviews and synopsis point towards it being rather mediocre).

8. For Your Pleasure by Roxy Music

'Do the Strand' and 'Versions of You' are total jams.

9. Swords Against Death by Fritz Lieber.

A great volume of Lieber's Fafhrd & Grey Mouser stories, but the one about the birds with the women of Lankhmar wearing cages over their heads as fashion statements is unbeatable and gives Lankhmar that tangible being-there feeling that you also get visiting Meiville's New Crobozon or Vandermeer's Ambergreis or Swainston's Fourlands.

10. Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo.

I aquired all six of the Dark Horse collected volumes of Akira this year, and the first three are a bit of a drag, given that if you've seen the movie you're reading a lot of material you've already seen, with some other stuff which is not in the film that you probably over-focus on because its unknown. Volumes 4-6 are fucking dynamite, though, and really cross over into top-notch sci-fi writing territory. And the final twenty pages or so qualify as the sort of 'revolutionary sci-fi' Moorcock spells out in his essay 'Starship Stormtroopers,' Viva the Greater Tokyo Empire!!!


-d.d.

The hell? Fat-at-Comicon. Part 2 (of 2).

Fat's second and final day of field note submissions from Comicon.

Mo Cheeks is eating
breakfast where we are.
10:51AM Sat, Jul 26


This guy walking by just
issued this huge belch
and didn't excuse
himself. Mo and I
exchanged disapproving
eye contact and
headshakes.
11:11AM Sat, Jul 26


Ben Edlund autograph!
'I'm a huge fan. I think
yer a genius.' 'Uhm. I'll
take it.'
1:02PM Sat, Jul 26

-d.d.

The hell? Fat-at-Comicon. Part 1.

Fat's in SanDiego at Comicon. He took the time to file some field notes.

Tshirt idea: got
Aspergers?
9:42AM Fri, Jul 25¹


Caution: Seaman shirt
spotted.
10:36AM Fri, Jul 25


Scott Shaw! and Sergio
Aragones booth to
Booth! I'm seriously a
little starstruck.
11:06AM Fri, Jul 25


Rom back issues. SO
yoinking these!
11:45AM Fri, Jul 25


Captain Sisko! Freaking!
Out!
1:54PM Fri, Jul 25


Venture Bros panel! Line
insane, am skipping it.
3:46PM Fri, Jul 25


Young woman
cosplaying as Dazzler.
Jesus wept. Not sure I'm
going back to-morrow.
5:23PM Fri, Jul 25

-d.d.


¹ I responded to this:

Keep working on that
one.
9:43AM Fri, Jul 25

because I didn't think it was very funny. Not that I thought it was offensive, just I think it particularly funny. Also, I had no coffee yet.

Fat wrote back:

Post it.
9:51AM Fri, Jul 25

Then, later, he "accidently" sent me this one…

DDT hated this joke,
but at Comicon, every
fifth shirt should read
'Got Asperger's?'
1:01PM Fri, Jul 25

To which I responded…

Well, that's funny. A shirt
by itself not so much.
1:04PM Fri, Jul 25

Because 'every 5th shirt' IS funny. Context!