Nyannet::News

Shifter Pack from Alite Designs

6/5/2012 1:05:13 PM

If you follow me on twitter you have probably figured out that I have a thing for gadget storage, and just well.. storage in general. If you don't follow me on twitter then... hey guys I have a thing for storage, you may have seen a hint of it in a few blog posts I made.

Last year I got a Tenba: Large Messenger Camera/Laptop Bag to house all of my various trinkets whilst on the go. It worked great over the summer and performed admirably at PAX PRIME and on several occasions since then, however there were a few issues I had with it that planted a seed of need for a different solution.
1.)No matter how I strapped it to my back, it would slide down from my relatively stationary back down to my more mobile butt regions where walking caused it to shift up and down on my back. Which could cause pilling of whatever fabric it was rubbing against.

2.)Packed with various convention/travel essentials (camera, dice, a couple of magic decks) the bag didn't have much more room for stuff. Now an extra water bottle, a few t-shirts or w/e was fine, but anything more and the bag became to full to use, especially when trying to retrieve my camera. 3.)Not very practical as a day bag (see item 2.) Good for transporting tech, not so hot for other things.

Now, those issues aside, I still love my Tenba bag. If I am hauling tech gear, it doesn't get much better, the problem is largely in its performance as a hybrid/travel bag.

Recently I have been finding lots of cool stuff through Fab.com and that was where I first found out about Alite Designs who make some pretty cool camper/urban survivalist gear.

I saw their Big Oak Backpack and got really excited because I have wanted a soft-frame camping bag solution, but then I saw the Shifter Pack and I realized what had been missing in my life.

The Shifter Pack is a hybrid between a back pack and a more traditional backpacker style daypack. It features some very nice erganomically formed straps as well as securing straps across the chest and waist. Each shoulder strap has a reflective patch, some heavy duty nylon weave loops as well as some neat secondary straps that can be used for a variety of purposes. The padding against your back is a breathable mesh weave of a high quality nylon that doesn't catch at fabric but still holds the bag firm against your back.

The bag features a dedicated laptop pocket accessible from outside the bag via the enclosure shown, and internally there is a flap access. The external enclosure can be further secured with the adjustable clips. The entire bag is weather proof and water resistant (stands up to rain... don't go scuba diving with it). I can vouch for its weather and water resistance as I have used it camping and even when a dog bowl of water got tipped over on it, the water just shed off.

The front of the bag features three pockets, a heavy duty canvas loop, and handle for an added way to pick it up and carry it in a pinch. The bag also features a pocket on the side that is large enough for a standard Camelback/Sports style water bottle but not quite big enough for a traditional Nalgene bottle. The top of the bag can either be fully extended allowing for extra storage, or folded over its self and clipped for extra security and weather proofing.

The first pocket is kind of a quick stash pocket, big enough to put some keys in, some snacks, doggy waste bags, or a crushable rainjacket. Small stuff you need quick access too, this is the pocket for you.

The second pocket, located on the right hand side of the front, zips vertically and is laid out across the width of the bag, it features an internal belt loop and is surprisingly spacious. Depending how full the main bag is you can fit quite a few things in here. At full capacity in the main bag this pocket can fit probably a DS and a game carrier, or a decent size book, maybe not ASOIAF sized but pretty big. A kindle will fit into this pocket easy as well as several other similar sized devices. I think it is big enough for an iPad but I don't have one to try and I am to lazy to measure.

The third front pocket is similar to the second. It has a vertical zip, is laid out across the width of the bag and has internal belt loops. The two pockets (2nd and 3rd) overlap each other so laying stuff out in them is most efficient if you do kind of a zizag pattern, loading one heavy at the top light at the bottom and the other heavy on bottom light on top. This gives you a number of ways to configure your stuff internally to have dedicated pockets and still not have a giant bulky bag. This pocket by default comes with a insert (what those little belt loops are for) that allows further division and separation of items within your bag.

Here is the extra insert which has two belt loop mounts that allow you to arrange it two different ways within your bag within either of the two large front pockets or in the main part of the bag there is also a place to mount it. It features a full width main pocket that zips closed and as the icon indicates (I am a sucker for this kind of little detail) it contains a ribbon and clip for securing your keys within. The other icons suggest other uses for the external pockets, though the camera pocket is only for those who have a little quick shot sports camera, I don't think it would even fit a micro SLR even if you took the lens off, it does however fit an iPhone quite nicely. When camping I used this to great success as my washroom kit, it fit all of my travel toiletries as well as my electric shaver.

The main bag is deceptively large. It contains one internal pocket divider which would allow you to separate some slimmer items from bulkier ones (D&D books fit in it perfectly) as well as the belt loop, mentioned earlier, and a flap to access the dedicated laptop pocket.

The laptop pocket is held closed with velcro with some nice overlap so that you don't have things falling in and bothering your precious lappy.

I had to, of course, test its capacity to see if it would serve me better for my needs, especially with another PAX on the horizon. So, I started grabbing stuff I would probably take or a rough facsimile to see how much I could get in there. This is probably about 75-80% filled. I didn't really utilize the front pockets all that much and I didn't use the optional top section even though it is currently unfolded.

Final Verdict: Yup, it holds lots of stuff. The lens and the air pump (in case you are wondering) was my stand in for my SLR which I was using to take pictures. All of this fit within the bag and I was able to strap it on my back just fine and had a fair amount of room to fit some soft bulky stuff like some t-shirts or w/e. A week ago I used it for a weekend trip to my in-laws and was able to fit clothing for 3 days, Dog supplies, all of my mobile work gear (laptop and accessories) and still some extra room for the inevitable stuff picked up on such a trip.

For the completionist, here is the list of what is pictured.

Tamron 7-300mm lens
Coleman 4D battery air mattress pump
Full set of dice required for Dungeon Mastering
2 X full sleeved MTG Commander decks with sideboards in boxes.
3 X full sleeved MTG Standard decks with sideboards in boxes
Travel Chargers for laptop and Nintendo DS
Box of Munchkin (which has expansions 1-3 in box) as well as 1 extra expansion box
Passport
Nintendo 3DS in cushioned travel case with a few extra games inside
Official Nintendo Club DS game and stylus carrier
Kindle
iPhone 4s in Lego case

I have had a few occasions to use this bag already, and I will have a few more over the summer before PAX Prime, but already I am in love with it. All the little details, the various places you can mount extra equipment and the attention to detail and solid construction just make me a happy, happy boy. I hightly suggest you check out Alite Designs for their other products and gear and if you are looking for a bag I would highly suggest checking out the Shifter.

Spring Camping 2012

5/23/2012 6:11:24 PM

This past weekend was my birthday and to celebrate (and because I wanted to get away a bit) I went on a camping trip to my favorite camping spot at Indian Cave State Park.

The weather was amazing, despite a forcast for thunderstorms, and the campground was populated with only a handful of campers, just enough to not feel lonely. The only issue was that I totally forgot that we had a super mild winter.. so the whole weekend was spent in terror of various creepy crawlies, but especially ticks. I mean... when you are setting up camp and int he first 15 minutes you have to pull a monster one off of your dog... well things are pretty bad.

Toshi didn't mind though. Well, once his blanket was put down within the confines of the bug discouraging tent. I call it bug discouraging because there were plenty of buggos full of piss and vinegar that bullied their way in.

The first evening was really peaceful, I got some good story notes done for some things I am working on and I took a mighty fine nap. So despite the chitinous assault during the brighter hours the evening was rather nice.

That was of course until the thunder bug came... There we were all huddled down in the tent, reading some Wheel of Time books when something that sounded like a diesel engine mated with a bumble bee started slamming itself against the tent sides heading towards the reading lamp. Luckily, the tent was shut up tight, but that didn't stop it from trying to burrow under the tent... if the bump it made was to be belived it was at least 4 inches long and 2 inches wide.. and it wanted to hump the shit out of our lantern. After a while it went away, but it was pretty terrifying.
The original plan was to spend the day hiking through the lush hardwood forest, but seeing as the trees were filled with ticks and the mechano love bug was somewhere out there, I settled on a few pictures of the are around camp.

Pretty though. You can't see them but about two feet in there is a line of desiccated bodies of people with either not enough DEET or common sense.

So most of the weekend was spent reading, napping, and the occasional drive around the campsites to see what other groups were down camping (and to cool off, it got pretty hot in the afternoon). Toshi probably had the most fun out of everyone.

Look at dat face.

I just wanna pinch those cheeks.

Aww he is looken at the bugs gathering at the ceiling.

Now he's napping. What a little fluff. Arn't you the cutest.... (cough, cough) um... right sorry about that. If you had a dog you'd understand.

So yeah the weekend was pretty fun, I had a good birthday, got to try out my new bag Nicole got me (review up later) and got some creative work done. Wooo camping.

Web Design: Logo for Tally's Treasury

5/15/2012 12:19:30 AM

So I have recently begun taking on some freelance work to expand my web design and development portfolio and part of that process has been to reach out to friends and see if they would be interested in some work being done for them.

One of the first people I reached out to was Tally of Tally's Treasury and Desert Bus for Hope fame, who I have had some prior dealings with in that she is the amazing artist that I commissioned to do my plushie Scaled Wurm as well as a few other things.

Basically, after her making awesome things for me, and being just an awesome person in general, I wanted a way to give her something of value back (skill for skill you see) and build a bit of portfolio while I was at it. So I said "Hey, would you be interested in a logo and business cards?" and she was like "Yes." and so I got to work.

I started the process off just by asking a few questions, prefered colors, imagery, that sort of stuff and she provided a few files for reference and I just got to work mocking up some ideas in illustrator.

After some initial mockups and discussion we started to nail down the design. We went with a mixed format logo, both image and text and as such font was kind of a big deal. I am a fan of sans serifs so that was my starting point but I gave a gambit of some well designed fonts.

To my amusement she went for Futura which is pretty much the default font for creatives, a step up from Helvetica, and one of my favorite fonts.

Next was some additional refinement to the figure, making it cuter, truer to the felt beasties she creates for her Etsy shop, and color options. I started the color process with a green from a sample file she provided and then we refined it from there. When working with someone who knows color the best thing to do is provide them with some color charts and options, you shouldn't make the person create the color they want, that can get frustrating, just take a base color and make a color grid and work to get the right color from there. There were literally two emails between making this image and getting the ok on a color.

After the final image was settled on I set to work making the business cards. Tally had expressed her interest in non-standard shaped cards and I gave a few recommendations and we went forward with a square with rounded corners. I knew right way that I wanted to give it some kind of cloth texture and so I scanned a few felt scraps and found one with a clean texture and used it to give the card some crafty warmth. The overall design ended up being really clean and simple and I was really happy with it and even happier when I saw how well they printed.

I have a few more projects in the pipe that I hope to share with you in the near future and I will probably be talking about web stuff more often as it is a rather large part of my life so stay tuned to more stuff like this. You can see the finished printed cards over at Tally's website here.

Modular Shelving from Way Basics

5/12/2012 2:55:26 PM

So my book collection has been getting a bit out of hand, and as it was taking over the tops of my shelves where I normally put figures and you can only double stack your shelves with books so long as such I was in the market for some shelves. It was at this critical junction that I was introduced to Fab.com which frequently has some pretty cool stuff on it, including a sale on some shelves from Way Basics which are both cheap and awesome. The deal was for 6 cubes at like 30% off so it was a good investment.

I was a bit worried as the external box was rather beat up, luckily the shelves themselves were packed individually and rather well so it all turned out good.

Yes! Checkboxes that both label what is inside and SHOW what it is talking about. Nothing more frustrating than a labeling system that just says "6 Unit California Ochre" or some other meaningless verbage.

Getting set up in my office which must constantly be protected from the wrath of the daystar lest it heat up to unmanageable levels now that spring/summer is upon us.

The packaging was conservative and well thought out. As a dog owner I appreciate that there was no styrofoam which my dog loves to try and steal whenever I am unpacking something. Everything in the box is recylable.

Construction of all six cubes took minimal effort, everything is held together with a few well placed plugs and pre-applied heavy duty tape strips. I was surprised at how sturdy these were once put together, and (in my opinion) they look great.

I also like that these are an item from a company whose sole purpose is to make stuff like this. I have had troubles in the past where I fall in love with a modular furniture line but it is part of a big box chain and next year when I finally need more storage space they have discontinued anything that matches what I purchased previously.

One set of 3 filled up right away, but I actually have a bit of breathing room on my second set of 3! I am sure that should at least last me until I read through 1/5th of my backlog books (I have a rule that a book doesn't go on a shelf till it has been read, as such.. I still have an overgrown pile of unread books (not pictured) somewhere in my room.)

So if you haven’t checked out Fab.com you should (not at work though... they frequently have um.. questionable items on the front page i.e. designer dildos. Unless your work is cool with that sort of thing in which case, um, good for you?) and if you are a book geek or a figure geek, or both (like me!) or just someone that needs some cool modular shelving check out Way Basics.

How to make Hummus

3/1/2012 6:51:13 PM

Hanakawa Tsubasa by Good Smile Company

2/22/2012 7:18:21 PM

It has been a while since I have had a chance to do a figure article, but Nisemonogatari started up here recently and I decided I was long overdue for a new figure. I decided to pick up Tsubasa Hanakawa from Good Smile Company.

It used to be really hard to track down figures from reputable sources, really there was mainly just J-List to order from or you could gamble on eBay or purchase from an other overseas distributer. Not any more, now it is pretty easy to find quite a few figures right on Amazon which makes everything much easier.

I am always amazed at the detail on the accessories for some of these figures, I also lament it a bit as well as I have to find a way to store any loose or extra ones so that they don't get lost or damaged.

I had to get out the macro lens for this figure, and let me tell you… setting it up on my ancient tripod is not very fun…

However the pictures it takes are worth the effort.

Broke out a dime for some size comparisons.

The macro lens and tripod also make it much easier to take good pictures of the figures faces. I am super happy with the photos I took.

Tiny, tiny, perfect manicure.

Hanekawa Tsubasa is a high strung book worm from the anime Bakemonogatari. When she gets stressed she starts to transform into a nekomimi, this is her in her 1/2 transformed state. When she fully transforms she has white hair, claws, cat eyes, tail, the whole shebang and a personality flip from timid and reserved to dangerously assertive.

This is a really amazing figure from Good Smile and I swear every time I get a new figure from them it shows that they keep improving. Now I just need to get Kanbaru and my collection of Bakemonogatari ladies will be complete.

Poster and Calendar from Doe Eyed Design

2/15/2012 4:52:36 PM

So I know the fine fellows that make these posters, and I actually have a secret stock of them waiting to be framed, and when I saw that there was a free bad ass calendar to be had and a Mogwai poster that I didn't own there was little consideration before hitting the purchase button.

Check out The Doe Eyed Design website for lots of other awesome things.

(Kindle, lantern, and fish bottle opener not included.)

Japanese Candies: Botan Rice Candy and ?

2/13/2012 7:37:45 PM

So I was home sick today with a general feeling of crumby-ness and my partner in crime Nimasprout decided to cheer me up by getting some Japanese candy from a specialty candy store in our area. It worked pretty well.

First up was the Botan Rice Candy, which features a sticker and a edible wrapper cleverly contained within the actual wrapper. It gets a little confusing when unwrapping it, but the candy was quite delicious.

This type (there are several) had a light citrus flavor that I really liked. Definitely will be getting this again if I go on a trip or just for snacks in the office.

Next up was this!… which I have no idea what it is, other than it is made by Morinaga. It appears to be some kind of mystery flavored candy which I can concur.. as I could not figure out the flavor after eating a few.

The box has a nice little punch in spot which you can press in to let candy out. It actually works unlike most American "press to open" boxes.

The candy itself seems to be flavored white chocolate around a flavored malt/crisp ball center. It is not bad, but not my favorite. I like to know what flavor something is… if I had to describe it, it kind of tasted like citrus strawberry.

I also got some Kit Kats, but that will be another article.

Night Snow Feb 2012

2/4/2012 9:50:55 PM

One of my favorite things about snow is how it changes the landscape at night. During the day snow is ok, but at night is when it truly shines.

The bike path behind my apartment complex saw a fair amount of dog owner and crazy excited dog traffic today. Sand people we were not, though we did our best to follow already created trails.

Oh snow, I will miss you when you are gone.

Snow Day Feb 2012

2/4/2012 11:48:52 AM

Yesterday there was no snow on the ground and just a light drizzle of rain. This morning however…

I was skeptical when I heard we were going to get 18 inches of snowfall overnight. So far it has an unseasonably warm winter so I figured it would just stay rain.

There are even some branches down. I guess we are going to get a bit of a real Nebraska winter this year after all.

The dog was excited.

Very excited.

He seemed to have lots of places he needed to go.

It's a good thing I got groceries yesterday...