Partly in the spirit of posts like What are objects that have made your life better? and Things you’re allowed to do¹, partly - if something “just works” for years you have no reason to remember it, then it ‘floats away’ next time you move, isn’t immediately missed because you have other stuff going on, end you end up using a short USB charger for months…

Tech hardware

• Phone:
  • BRIGHT ORANGE or a combination of colors (e.g. blue phone and red cover) to find it on any background. Black, the color of most office chairs, is the worst.
    • and pink headphones for the same reason
  • Waterproof, battery, disk space. In this order.
  • Good phone with an undestroyable case instead of a mediocre ‘rugged’ phone
• Chargers:
  • 2m phone charger wires with a texture (nylon, braided, any other names?..) and LED at the end: easy to find by touch only (in the dark, in the backpack, among 50 other black wires…)
    • strategically positioned around the house
  • Additional laptop chargers (one at work / in the backpack, one on the couch etc.)
  • Pick devices to have as many matching chargers as possible
• Bluetooth remotes/buttons for my phone!² (Added on 2022-12-22)
  • Use-case: you’re in bed, listening to podcasts/audiobooks/… through headphones when falling asleep, and need to skip an ad/episode or change volume. Finding the phone and looking at the screen would negate the whole “fall asleep” bit
  • Key Mapper³ mappings make this even better:
    • central “play” button: once for play/pause, twice for “30 seconds forward”
    • “forward” button: once for “30 seconds forward”, twice for “go to next episode”
    • “backward” button: same as above but backward
  • The same mappings on the volume buttons of the phone
• QR code with wifi info taped somewhere

Day to day life

• Glasses with self-tinting lenses
• BIG Mil-Tec / M-Tac assault backpack⁴
  • The MOLLE system is nice and you can attach carabins with stuff to it, like grocery bags etc
  • The straps can make it visually smaller, nice for carry-on luggage!
  • Zips around all of it - so it can open fully, the whole 180 degrees
  • Water-proof
• Keys on a chain attached to the pants with a carabin (or two, to make disconnecting easier).
  • The chain should be:
    • long enough, so that I can open any doors without detaching the chain
    • Double (= a circle), so that it can be hung anywhere
  • If it’s not a chain, it’ll break, you can reattach it with a Buntline Hitch
• Electronic toothbrush!
• KITCHEN PLIERS!!!
• молочник вместо заварника - мыть легче и использовать тоже
• Gloves with touchscreen-friendly fingers
• BRIGHT LUGGAGE is nice to see in a sea of black and dark blue ones
  • And traveling wearing polos with a pocket: can be used for things needed often and close, such as documents (passport, boarding pass) but also headphones
• Rug in the bathroom near bath/shower: feels nice and less likely to slip
• Emergency money (and masks!) hidden in places that you can forget about and always count on :)
• Thermoflasche, my Tramp 0.9l survived more abuse than I thought possible
• Glow-in-the-dark-scotch on phone, bluetooth button, bike, water bottle, and everything else

Outside

• HAMMOCKS!
  • With Thermarest-ish inflatable Isomatten and places to put them
  • With fly nets!
  • Best book ever on this topic: The Ultimate Hang by Derek Hansen

• Buff, always with me, infinite uses, bonus points if it keeps flies away
• Bicycle gear
  • REARVIEW MIRROR! Convex and wide, bad ones are totally useless
  • Double kickstand / Zweibeinständer, I love my Ursus Jumbo⁵
  • phone holder without a screen, this style basically:
  • good gloves with touchscreen fingers that work when you bend the fingers
• Waterproof organizers
• S-Karabinen! Both small for keys and larger ones

Software

• noise cancelling (noisetorch) if the microphone picks up my typing
• documents backed-up in git and accessible from the phone⁶
• git repos with multiple remotes (github, gitlab, my VPS) for redundancy.
• Password managers, Bitwarden/Vaultwarden is nice
• Fastmail with calendar/contacts synchronised with DAVx
• Obsidian for notes
• Android:
  • Podcasts: PodcastAddict, with volume keys mapped to “skip 15 seconds” though Key Mapper and Precise Volume to make it quieter
  • NewPipe for YouTube!
  • Sentien Launcher for distraction-free screen
  • RedReader and other Reddit clients
  • Calendar on phone background
  • Buy apps
    • Tasker!
    • The NetKnots app is wonderful

Stuff you can do

• Checklists!
• Listen to podcasts at 1.5-2x the speed (that you save on a per-podcast basis!)!
• Donate to or buy apps and programs that make your life better
• Write postcards and letters to people; plan video calls and phone calls instead of texting
• Sabbath and meditation
• Go outside to read books on the grass, on a hammock, …
• Learn to tie knots and tie the knots, apply them to other places
• Download books and if they’re good buy the paperback version! Multiple. Gift them to people.