What's in Your Bag(/backpack/briefcase/purse/man-bag)?

[MissSilvy]

Am I the only one who has an interest in what people carry around with them? Forgive me if it sounds deviant or weird but I find that what people have on them can tell you a lot about them :)

For myself, generally a backpack, laptop, textbook, journal, fiction book, pencils+pens, compass (the drawing kind), laptop cord, and a million smaller knick-knacks.

 

[binzing]

In my backpack I have: two binders, algebra 2 textbook, AP Biology lab notebook, and a notebook for doodling, etc. Plus a TI 83 and a back up calculator and some pens and pencils in the front pocket, and then, as far as a random item, I have a stolen New Mexico flag...

 

[mcknia07]

Oh, don't even get me started in what I carry in my purse. Pretty much, you name it, I have it in there. Then, for school, I carry a book bag as well, and that has many more things that are needed. If you want me to take all the time, I can name everything in them...

 

[Cyrus]

https://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=1882820&postcount=2

Plus a binder and engineering notepad for my course notes.

I only take notes in one of my two classes anymore though. The other one I just sit there and listen to him talk becaues he just writes what's in the book. I get bored copying all that down and I can't follow along. I just listen to him talk and then if I need an equation I look at the book. He wrote the book, so why bother taking notes?

 

[CaptainQuasar]

I carry a million dollars in cash with me everywhere, in a titanium steel briefcase handcuffed to my wrist.

I used to travel lots for work and I would carry generic postcards with me everywhere because I usually had to rush all over the place once I got where I was going so I didn't have time to buy postcards wherever I was. I wouldn't remember to write a postcard out to anyone until I was sitting in the airport waiting for my flight home, usually. Then while I was writing it out I would imagine sweet violin music playing in the background, like in Civil War documentaries when the narrator is reading parts of a letter a soldier sent home. Then I would go and mail the postcard and stop at a Cinnabon and buy a giant iced cinnamon bun the size of my head and spend the flight in a sugar coma.

⚛​

 

[MissSilvy]

Cyrus: I'm jealous of your messenger! I have to root around and see if I can buy a similar one someday.

Sure you can name everything in it! I didn't because the list changes all the time but it'd be fun to see what other people tote around :)

By the way, am I the only college student who wants to hire a valet to carry my bags around? If I use a messenger, I have to put my laptop in a separate case. If I use my backpack, I have to carry the laptop or I'll topple over backwards. If I just carry the laptop, that's a bad idea because everything else I need is in one of the other bags!

 

[Kurdt]

I have a wallet and some keys, in my pocket. The wallet is devoid of anything that could be called money.

 

[BobG]

Three slide rules (2 10", plus a 6") and a TI-86, just in case I have to stage a math assault on a classroom held hostage by a Lit professor.

At least 50 scraps of paper containing pin numbers and passwords that are surely obsolete by now - not that it matters, since I don't remember what accounts they go to, nor my username if I did somehow remember what account they go to.

I also have an Air Force Emergency Response sheet, although calling it a sheet instead of a textbook is a misnomer. It's something I should always carry in my wallet when I'm on base, except it's so thick that it violates Britney Gallivan's equation for folding things.

I also have a small stapler and staples, a cleaning pad for my slide rules, a small flashlight, a device for cleaning my glasses, a slew of badges that grant me access to various workplaces and computers, plus an interface cable for something - it might be for my TI-86. I also have a spoon and napkin, just in case I have to stage a math assault on a picnic.

I have various pens and pencils (including an old RCA pencil with a slide to match resistor colors to their values), a metal ruler, a nice looking hatband (even though everyone I know prefers the hatband with the resistors and capacitors), a memory stick, a couple of erasers, plus various recall and on-call rosters.

Temporary objects usually contain two or three folders containing "stuff" from my current project (either professional or personal).

My backpack has a collapsible handle and wheels (kind of like airport luggage). All-in-all, it's a mobile assault office.

Edit: And Kurdt just reminded me: there's green stuff in my wallet - unfortunately, it's not money.

I also carry a Swiss Army knife. I can open a beer bottle on a second's notice, plus the opener serves as a handy handle for zipping the windows on my Jeep. I use the screwdriver attachments fairly often as well. The tweezers come in handy, too. Once in a while, I even cut something with one of the knife blades.

 

[hypatia]

I have a bag that I carry every day. It has all matter of top secret stuff in it.

 

[BobG]

I have a bag that I carry every day. It has all matter of top secret stuff in it.

No anti-matter?

Not to mention that you could probably use a dose of energy.

 

[wolram]

It depends where i am going, if i go across the fields, i take my swiss army knife and a pack of sugar free polo mints and my keys.
If i go out i have some cash ,my credit card ,same type mints, keys and a hankie.

 

[physics girl phd]

Three slide rules (2 10", plus a 6") and a TI-86, just in case I have to stage a math assault on a classroom held hostage by a Lit professor...

All-in-all, it's a mobile assault office.

When I worked at WPAFRL, we were having so many computer-outages due to viruses that I kept a circular slide rule in a bell jar next to my computer... to break into in case of emergency!

But seriously... where's the AK-47? Buried under the green stuff leaking from the wallet?

 

[George Jones]

Tonight: a TI-89, a writing pad, The Quantum Ten by Sheilla Jones, An Introduction to Thermal Physics by Daniel Schroeder, Introduction to Elementary Particles (2nd, revised edition) by David Griffiths, A Relativist's Toolkit: The Mathematics of Black-Hole Mechanics by Eric Poisson, A Course in Modern Mathematical Physics: Groups, Hilbert Space and Differential Geometry by Peter Szekeres.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Anytime I go to a jobsite, I usually need a car trunk full of equipment - scope, meters, computers, power supplies, programming modules or interface equipment, backup software... This is one reason why air travel is such a royal pain. I've packed as much as ~100 lbs worth of equipment in my Samsonite heavy duty. Nothing like dragging that beast, my regular suitcase, and two computers, around a place like O'Hare.

I've noticed lately that I have an awful lot of keys and I don't remember what most of them are for anymore. I know that I have some keys for State facilities and other customer sites where I've done work, but most are a mystery; thus my reluctance to get rid of them.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Pens, pencils, pencil sharpener, white out (I've never actually had a use for it :-/), eraser, corkscrew/bottle opener, condoms, mints, cologne, paperclips, rubberbands, spare change, matches, lighters, extra pack of smokes, pepper spray, handcuffs, small flashlight, batteries, utility belt, random scraps of paper or pieces of mail, expandable file folder with paperwork/schedules/check stubs/ect, a novel or two (currently Confessions of An Ugly Stepsister), ibuprofen, pocket CA penal code, fork, spoon, swiss army knife, and what ever other things I may wind up dropping in there.

The trunk of my car is the crazy list.

 

[moose]

Left jean pocket: Pen, keys
Right pocket: Cell phone, spare change if I happen to have some
Right rear pocket: wallet
Left rear pocket: If someone hands me a flier I place it there.

 

[BobG]

Pens, pencils, pencil sharpener, white out (I've never actually had a use for it :-/), eraser, corkscrew/bottle opener, condoms, mints, cologne, paperclips, rubberbands, spare change, matches, lighters, extra pack of smokes, pepper spray, handcuffs, small flashlight, batteries, utility belt, random scraps of paper or pieces of mail, expandable file folder with paperwork/schedules/check stubs/ect, a novel or two (currently Confessions of An Ugly Stepsister), ibuprofen, pocket CA penal code, fork, spoon, swiss army knife, and what ever other things I may wind up dropping in there.

The trunk of my car is the crazy list.

Corkscrew, condoms, mints, cologne and extra pack of smokes, pepper spray, handcuffs, utility belt, and a pocket CA penal code. Sounds you're preparing to go out on a date.