Super-Zero

So I have been searching for a new laptop bag since my old one started to fall apart. It was OK when I got here but I think the constant everyday abuse which I put my bags though is finally starting to show. The material is starting to fray, stitches are coming loose and padded shoulder strap is now anything but padded. Or complete for that matter of fact.

So I decided to start searching the Web for a bag worthy of the abuse I can give my belongings and protecting my various bits of gear. (NB: I have been known to carry three laptops at once, or xBox’s and laptops all in the one bag). It would need to be strong. A padded shoulder strap was also a definite as I wear my bag on my pacemaker shoulder. It needed to be roomy and looking nice is always an added bonus. It also has to be subtle. I hate bags that seem to scream “Hey everyone! Look, This guy is carrying a laptop! Can everyone see?!” which is one of the reasons I prefect satchel or messenger style bags.

 The Bag of Holding

I started my search over at ThinkGeek where I had recently seen an interesting bag. That bag was The Bag of Holding

The Bag of Holding gets its name from the game Dungeons & Dragons, where a similar in-game item exists. The Bag of Holding is a mystical object which would hold /a lot more/ than it looked like it could. The same is said to be true of ThinkGeeks tribute.

From the picutres and reviews around the web, the bag does indeed appear to be larger inside than out. The heavy canvas material its made of looks sturdy and lifting up the flap reveals a world of wonder underneath. There is room for a laptop, games, power brick, accessories, books, binders, gadgets, MP3 players, phones and anything else you care to cram into it.

For me though, as awesome as this bag looks it has two major drawbacks:

1. The bag strap has no padding whatsoever. Its just a canvas strap.
2. It ships from the US only, which means $42.50 in shipping. Not. Cool.

However at $59.99 that would be an overal cost of 102.50 and at todays exchange rate that works out at about £65. So one to think about.

Then my eyes set upon this.

Booq Taipan Shadow M

Booq have a nack of making incredibly good looking products and then take advntage of this by photographins them in amazing conditions and perfect lighting, to make an object that is instantly lustable. They leave no stone undturned on the products portfolio either, showing you in depth pictures of all the areas of the bag – something I have found a lack of while on this bag searh.

Along with a padded section fo a laptop upto 15.6″ (Work laptop or my Macbook) it also has tons of space for books and accessories along with pouches and pockets galore for quick access to things like pens, passports or airplane tickets.

The reviews around the web state that the build quality of this bag is second to none, with very close attention to detail being paid to the stitching, padding and overall construction of the bag. The strap is heavily padded which is great, and overall it looks inconspicious and professional.

There is one problem though, and that is the price. In the US this bag is $99.99 which I think is a great price. The problem is, in Europe, this bag is €99.99 which is a lot more. And odd becuase I’m pretty sure Booq is a Dutch company, as they offer both English and Ditch languages on their US site.

So that prompted me to keep on searching. I found some nice bags along the way from the likes of Timbuk2 and Crumpler but there were was very little that looked roomy enough for what I wanted. I then came across a brand I had never heard of before but that seems to be quite popular.

Everki Track Messenger Bag

This is a bag to rival the Booq, although it did turn out it had the same flaw, but more on that later

There is a ton of room in this bag, but it doesn’t really show it in the photos. However, this bag can confortably hold a laptop and all of its accessories – not only that but it also packs them into seperate pouches to stop them moving about or sratching anything else that might be in your bag. And it doesn’t stop at comptuer accessories either – there are pouches for pens, phone, MP3 player, earphones, papers, books – it even has collapsable sections if you want the bag to be smaller. And better yet, it has a paaded tablet slot designed specifically for the iPad, so not only can your laptop right in stye but your tablet can come along too, snug and cosy.

There is also a very padded strap included and the construct of the bag is excellent. But there was that one problem though, and that is that this bag is also from a US company. I did find it on ebay for £65 which puts it ahead of the similar Booq.

So, now I’m stuck. I have 3 great bags to choose from…so tell me people…thoughts?

P.S. Personal blog to come soon!

So I failed my CCNA last Wednesday which kinda sucks, but on the optimistic side, at least I didn’t fail it by a really small amount. In fact, I failed by 20% (82.5% being the pass and me obtaining 63.4%) so I don’t get to beat myself up over a few points. So I’m working hard to correct that failure and additionally have started studying for the CCNP Route exam which I will be taking next week.

I have also asked my ever patient Fiancée to make me a logo for the site given that I don’t really have the time to be working on it, so expect to see something up above by the end of the week. In other news I decided to bite the bullet and get my iMac shipped over here. I really am getting tired of stiff necks from leaning over laptops so I’m looking forward to having a decent screen and hardware to work with.

And totally off topic, recently I have been having a lot of flashbacks to a game I used to play in my childhood – that game being Descent, and more specifically Descent II.  When I was a kid playing games I tended to just play for the fun and generally used cheats to get me past the big bosses. However I’m very tempted to try a quick play through at some point with no cheats to see how far I get. It really was an epic game.

Buuut it is now rather late, so I shall leave it here for tonight. Hopefully this won’t be the last post this week!

It’s interesting how I find motivation at the oddest times.

Usually I’m motivated in the evenings, with thoughts moving around in my head after a nice dinner and a chance to relax. Lately though that hasn’t been the case at all. I thought I would welcome the regularity to my life that routine would bring but so far all it’s doing is draining me.

I get up about 6.45am. Wash, have breakfast (assuming I have milk, I do never seen to have enough) brust my teeth and leave. I catch the 7.49 metro to Gare Centrale where I get on the oldest, roughest train in all of Brussels and ride it rather slowly to Diegem. Thankfully the company pays for this as two weeks of tickets cost me €57.20 (expenses for the win). We study from 9am to 5.30pm and I go home, shop if I need anything, make dinner and then get back to studying. Sleep come after that (although not easily given the heat) and the process repeats again.

There is no time to be inspired to do anything but study and even then, that’s hard enough after a fully day of it. My motivation levels since I started here have just tailed off, although I’m not the only one experiencing this. So I find it odd that I’m sitting here at 9.30am in a classroom, listening to our (awesome) trainer teaching about Inter VLAN routing and I felt the urge to write something. It also kinda allowed me to show that I haven’t been lazy with updates, I’ve just been really busy/tired.

And don’t think I’m not paying attention either – writing seems to flow off the top of my head when I really want to write and I can listen at the same time. Rather odd.. but my understanding of VLANs is much better now. I think its a throwback from uni days of writing notes while still listening to the lecturer.

So, I’ll make a real effort to keep blogging or even just writing over the next few weeks. Don’t always expect blogs!