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hpr3842 :: What’s in my bag series

In this episode I go through the contents of the bag I take to work.

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Hosted by MrX on 2023-04-25 is flagged as Explicit and is released under a CC-BY-SA license.
Bag, Work. (Be the first).

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Duration: 00:32:03

What's in My Toolkit.

This is an open series where Hacker Public Radio Listeners can share with the community the items that they can't live without, what they find useful in day to day life.

Introduction

A time stamp is added for each item I mention. The time stamp given does not include the intro added by HPR so you’ll need to add a few more seconds to get to the the correct spot in the recording.

[1:20] - I mention that if you are struggling to think of a topic for an HPR show then the HPR site contains a list of requested topics which you can choose from. https://hackerpublicradio.org/requested_topics.php

[1:55] - Picture 01 show the “Wenger” rucksack (Backpack) I take to work. It was purchased many years ago and is probably no longer available.

Picture 1
Picture 1: “Wenger” rucksack

First front zip section

[3:20] - I mention that I suffered for many years with Hay fever and have had great success with Mixed Pollen 30C tablets which I bought on Amazon. Unknown to me at the time these were Homeopathic with miniscule concentration. Despite this they seems to have cured my Hay fever. Refer to the links below.

Wikipedia article on Homeopathic dilutions

Amazon link to Weleda Mixed Pollen 30C Tablets

[4:20] - Link to some unremarkable Iphone headphones I use which I bought from Amazon. Strangely they seem to constantly fall out of my left ear but remain in my right ear.

UGREEN HiTune Lightning Headphones MFi Certified In Ear Headphones with Lightning Plug Wired Earbuds Mic In-Line Control for iPhone Compatible with iPhone

[4:43] - Wedze Hand warmers, link from Decathlon.

First main compartment

[5:40] - Picture 02 shows the leather pouch pocket protector that I used to carry coins. I no longer have a use for it as I no longer carry change. Despite this for some reason I still continue to carry it back and forward to work.

Picture 2
Picture 2: leather pouch pocket protector

[6:25] - Pictures 03 and 04 show the Essentials fold back clips 19mm I use on a daily basis to organise bundles of paperwork.

Picture 3
Picture 3: Essentials clips

Picture 4
Picture 4: Essentials clips

Wikipedia link to article about Bulldog clips which are not exactly the same item but serve the same purpose.

[7:50] - Picture 05 shows the rubber (Eraser) I purchased from the New Lanark Village Store. The proceeds go to the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution).

Picture 5
Picture 5: eraser

Wikipedia article about the New Lanark Village
Link to New Lanark Village Store
Wikipedia article about the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution)

[8:50] - I mention a plastic bag clip – 08:50. Link to similar plastic bag clip on Amazon

[8:55] - I mention a rubber band. Link to rubber band article on Wikipedia

[9:10] - I mention a silica gel pouch I found in my work bag. Refer to picture 06.
Link to Silica Gel article on Wikipedia.

Picture 6
Picture 6: silica gel pouch

[9:40] - I mention a squishy ear defender. Refer to picture 07 Link to Wikipedia article about ear plugs

Picture 7
Picture 7: ear defenders

[10:20] - I mention that I carry Ain Stein 0.7 HB Pencil lead in my bag. Link to Ain Stein 0.7mm HB Pentel pencil leads on Amazon.

[10:50] – I mention that I carry a four colour Bic pen. Amazon link to Bic four coloured pen

[11:05] – I mention that I carry a Pentel P207 propelling pencil and that this is my favourite writing implement. Amazon link to Pentel P207 propelling pencil, they also offer other models with different thicknesses of lead.

Wikipedia article about the Pentel company

[13:20] – I mention that I carry black and white Eding 780 paint marker pens. Amazon link to Eding 780 paint marker pens.

[13:50] – I mention that I carry a Southord C801 Lock picking set which I was given as a birthday present one year. Amazon link to Southord C801 Lock picking set

Wikipedia article about lock picking

[15:35] - I mention that it is generally very easy to pick a combination lock. Link to YouTube video explaining how to pick a combination lock

[16:45] I mention I had some documentation bout the Python function urllib.request. I was using this function to scrape text from the HPR site. I cover how I used it in my previous HPR episode HPR 2340. Link to Python documentation about urllib.request

[17:10] I mention that I have some red coloured spot stickers that I have many uses for one of which is to make it easy to see at a glance if the switch that operates an outside light is turned on as without this it is not possible without stepping outside to check. Refer to picture 08.

Picture 8
Picture 8: red coloured spot stickers

Second main compartment

[18:20] I have a Morgan foldable brolly which I occasionally use when caught in the rain. Refer to picture 09

Picture 9
Picture 9: foldable umbrella

[18:30] I have a pair of foldable military ear defenders. I picked them up while I was at an air show I think at Ingliston many years ago. Refer to pictures 10 and 11

Picture 10
Picture 10: ear defenders

Picture 11
Picture 11: ear defenders

Third compartment containing a pile of keech

[19:30] I mention the Scottish word Keech. Definition of the Scottish word Keech.

[20:25] I found an old Unite Magazine from 2019 in my bag. A Wikipedia article about the Unite Union

[20:30] I mention I found on old article from 2006 about the possibility of a bird flu epidemic and how to protect yourself should it happen.

Wikipedia article about Avian influenza H5N1 commonly known as bird flu

Wikipedia article about the magazine New Scientist

[22:15] I mention that found a letter from my company with a designated worker heading. If required this letter was to allow me to drive to work at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. I do remember having to do this at least once and that the roads were deserted like some post apocalyptic scene from a movie. Despite this I never needed to show the letter to anyone.

[22:55] I talk about a sketch I made a number of years ago for a timber post. I was told this was needed in order to place a charging point midway up my driveway. This was needed for an electric car I was thinking of buying. I ended up abandoning the idea as it all got too complicated. I believe things have since improved and I now wish I’d bought the car is it actually went up in value!

[24:00] I briefly mention a piece of paper entitled disk tidy that contained various Linux commands. I think this was a number of Ideas I wanted to try out to tease out which directories were taking up the most space on a hard drive I had. These days I either use the du command or sometimes ncurses command ncdu.

[24:30] I talk about a pile of old documents I came across that may have copyright issues so I won’t include them in the show notes. However I’ll include the following related links

[24:40] The first document I found was from the from many years ago with a foot note saying it was from the UN Population Division UNDE SA Oxfam World Centre WWF giving various stats about global population, resource usage and carbon emissions Link to UN Population Division

Link to UN DESA (Department of Economic and Social Affairs)

Wikipedia article about

[26:00] I came across an old illustration from the BBC I think from around 2012 which had two graphs from the UK showing the vast number of staff working in the DWP (Department of Work and Pensions) to recover a potential small amount of fraud in the UK benefits system and comparing this to the tiny number of staff they had working in the UK's HMRC (HM Revenue and Customs) that could have recovered a potentially vast amount of tax evasion fraud. Wikipedia article about the BBC - British Broadcasting corporation

Wikipedia article about the DWP - Department for Work and Pensions

Wikipedia article about the HMRC - HM Revenue and Customs

[27:45] I briefly mention a paper I found that mentioned peak oil. I feel this is now less of a problem as there is more than enough left in the ground to fry humanity. Link to Wikipedia article about peak oil.

[27:45] I mention a Breadboard layout I found which I created to use with a Digital IO add on board on one of my raspberry pi’s. Refer to my previous HPR show 2901 Wikipedia article about Breadboards

Last compartment of bag – main area

[28:50] I mention that I carry a bottle of water to work. The bottle is a stainless steel water bottle that is double walled vacuum insulated. It can hold ‎500 Millilitres of liquid. It claims to be able to keep liquids cool for 24 Hours. I've been very impressed with it as it seems to be able to keep the water cool for the whole day I am at work. Amazon link to water bottle

[29:00] I mention that I carry a roll of masking tape. This comes in handy for all sorts of situations. Often to create ad-hoc labels for things. Wikipedia article about masking tape

[29:05] I mention that the skin on my hands can get very dry especially when I’m at the office due to it having low humidity. I use Nutrogena hand cream to combat this. Amazon link to Nutrogena hand cream

[29:42] I mention that I carry a stapler which comes in handy from time to time. Refer to picture 12. Wikipedia article about staplers

Picture 12
Picture 12: stapler

[29:50] I mention that I carry magnifying glass as my eyesight is not as good as it used to be. Wikipedia article about magnifying glasses

[29:55] I mention that I also carry a pencil case to work. Wikipedia article about the pencil case

[30:09] I found a Caramel Wacko chocolate bar biscuit in the bag I take to work (Refer to picture 13). These are available from from Aldi. Aldi is discount food store in the UK. Wikipedia article about Aldi

Picture 13
Picture 13: Caramel Wacko chocolate bar


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