Zebra 301 Pens Thoughts

This is going to be a relatively short review as these 301 pens from Zebra are just your average pens. They work well, and there's not a lot to say bad about them, especially considering the price. I use them pretty much everyday and have never been disappointed.

Likes

• Inexpensive. If you lose one, it’s not going to break the bank since they’re only like $5.
• Write well. I’ve always liked the refills Zebra uses. The gel refill in the G-301 is one of my favorites.
• Great quality. I haven’t had any problems with mine at all.
• Comfortable to write with. The plastic grip feels good in the hand.
• Comes in different variations: gel (G-301), ballpoint (F-301) in red/blue/black ink, and even a mechanical pencil version (M-301)
• Clicky works as it should
• Clip feels surprisingly sturdy
• Looks pretty nice design wise
• Available in most stores

Dislikes

• Since these are inexpensive, they have a cheapish feeling. The materials aren’t anything too premium, but that's what you would expect for $5. It’s not the end of the world, just something to note.

This is an everyday pen that you can use and not care about what happens to it. They work exactly as they should and are very affordable too. I use these for school all the time. I highly recommend you pick a few up. They’re so easy to find in most stores, so you might as well try them out. Thanks for looking!

School EDC

Today I'd like to talk about what I keep in my backpack at school. I am currently a senior in high school. My school has a very strict policy about knives, so this is going to be a pretty boring EDC update. There will be no knives, lighters, or really any of my typical EDC items. For me, I don't see the point in trying to carry any of my gear, because it's not worth getting suspended, and I don't want my stuff getting stolen. I can last the 7 hours at school without my gear. There are going to be times when you can't carry anything, so I might as well get used to it now. In college though, I'll definitely be incorporating my typical EDC stuff into my bag. Plus my bag gets heavy enough as it is, maybe 20 to 25 pounds, so I'd rather not load it down with stuff I'll never use. Enough of that rambling, let's get into my bag and what's in it. For the sake of not being too boring, I'm only going to show the more interesting items.

So this is my bag. It's just a typical Jansport backpack. I like it, because it's got a lot of pockets and is super comfortable to wear, especially with a decent amount of weight in it. It may not be the fanciest bag, but it works and has held up extremely well. I think this is my third year I've used it for school.

These were a few of the more interesting things I pulled out of the bag. Starting from the left, I always keep some sort of book with me. I like to read, and there's always a lot of down time in class. Right now it's Robinson Crusoe, which I must say is pretty boring. I like to read older classics, but this one just isn't that interesting. I also always keep pens and pencils with me. The one in the picture is a Zebra F-301 in blue. I usually also keep a couple cheap mechanical pencils in there too. Next to the pen is an Anker external battery and a cable to charge my phone. My school finally has Wifi, so that means I'm pretty much always on my phone. The battery can charge my phone quite easily. I haven't had to use it much yet, but I'm sure it will get a lot of use throughout the school year. Below the battery are some headphones, a USB flashdrive, and some hand sanitizer. The headphones are to block out all the annoying people, plus it's just nice to listen to music as you work. The flashdrive is for saving essays and other stuff of that nature. The hand sanitizer is pretty self-explanatory. Schools are disgusting, and students are sick all the time. Lastly, on the far right side is my phone. That's also pretty self-explanatory. That either goes in the bag or in my pocket depending on what time it is. 

That's the majority of stuff in my bag. Like I said, it's not that interesting, but it's all stuff that actually gets used. If you see something I'm missing that I really should carry, let me know. Thanks for looking!

Impulse Buys

Impulse buys really suck. You see something that looks really cool, is on sale, etc. and then buy it without even thinking. Sometimes you can be pleasantly surprised by these impulse buys, but I’ve found that’s usually not the case for me.  I’ve been pretty disappointed with a large majority of my impulse buys. I regret making almost every single one of them, because I could have used the money to spend on something I actually wanted. It’s an interesting opportunity to try out something new and different, but ultimately is a waste of time and money.

This day and age of technology makes purchasing these impulse items pretty easy. I’m able to find anything I could ever want on the internet for pretty good prices. Instagram is a huge black hole if you’re even a tad bit impulsive. If you didn’t know about Instagram sales before, then say goodbye to all your money now. You can just browse #knifesale and discover awesome things for deals that are too good to pass up. I’ve been pretty good about not giving into my impulses lately. I see sweet deals all the time, but hold off on them because I know I don’t need yet another knife, tool, etc. This hobby doesn’t have to leave our wallets empty all the time. It just takes a little bit of control. I may write a series about my buying process/how to buy gear on a budget. That’s pretty much it. I just wanted to write this short post about the evil impulse buys. Thanks for looking!

Purple EDC Gear

If your favorite color is purple or you just like purple gear, then you'll know it's always been a struggle to find purple gear. There used to be maybe only 3 or so products that were in this color, but lately I've been able to find a lot more purple stuff. This makes me happy as this hobby was always centered around more masculine and boring colors, like black and silver. I'm not sure if companies are doing this just to attract more females to buy their products. Whatever the reason is, I'm very excited about it. As you can see in the picture above, I've been able to get a nice purple collection going. There's still tons of purple gear out there that I still need to pick up too. I think I'm going to start doing purple collection updates as I find more purple gear. Stay tuned for those in the coming months! If you love purple as well, hopefully you'll be able to find more purple gear through these posts. Thanks for looking!

Spotlight Shifter 1.0 Thoughts

Specifications

Max lumens: 80

Max run time: 3 hours

Modes: 3, high/low/strobe

Battery: 1 AAA

Likes

• Very interesting concept. It’s a focusing flashlight, which means it can adjust from a spot beam to a flood beam by twisting the head of the light.
• Good build quality
• Pretty good form factor. It’s not the smallest AAA light, but it’s not that big either.
• Comes in different colors
• Clip doesn’t seem that strong, but I haven’t had any problems with it. It does carry pretty well.
• Knurling is nice and grippy
• Clicky button works as it should. You can either hold it down momentarily if you need a quick light or click to leave it on. It doesn’t take that much effort to click, so there could be problems with it getting turned on accidentally in your pocket. I haven’t encountered that problem since I don’t carry it in my pocket, but it is worth mentioning.
• Threads are smooth
• Beam is a good tint. It's your normal flashlight tint, not the crappy purplish tint that some cheap lights have.
• 80 lumens is a good amount of light for everyday usage
• Good selection of modes. I don’t ever use the strobe, but I guess it’d be nice to have if you needed it.
• Has an oring so it is water resistant
• Easy to use one-handed
• Decent price. It retails for around $40 on Spotlight’s website. I don’t know if I would pay that much considering there’s several things about the light I don’t like.

Dislikes

• Low mode is not that low. It’s not noticeably different from the high in my opinion. I think the low should be less than 5 lumens.
• Battery life isn’t that great. Like I mentioned above, there is no true low mode, so you’re pretty much running this light on high at all times. That drains the battery very quickly. I don’t think I’ve gotten anywhere near the 3 hours of runtime it’s supposed to have.
• Gets very hot in a short amount of time. The light just can’t keep up and gets hot/starts buzzing.
• Turns off automatically after a long duration of time. I'm guessing that's to help make sure the light doesn't overheat and burn itself out. I've tried plenty of other lights and never had them turn off automatically though.
• There’s a weird buzzing on the low mode. This is another reason I never use the low mode.

All in all, this is not the best light on the market. It’s an interesting concept, but mostly a gimmick in my mind. I don’t think the majority of people would need the option to have both a flood and a spot beam. If you do, check this out, but honestly I don’t think it’s worth it. I’ve been doing more research on focusing flashlights, and there are plenty of other ones out there. This one has quite a few issues that makes using it an unpleasant experience. Thanks for looking!

Awesome Trade with Girl on the Edge!

I recently did with a trade with a fellow YouTuber, Girl on the Edge. I originally was supposed to trade her two flashlights for a Spyderco Dragonfly. When I opened the box, I discovered that she threw in some extras. She also included a Thunderbird Butane Insert and Cold Steel Mini AK-47. It was definitely super generous of her!Huge thank you to her! I cannot wait to carry both blades. Getting the Zippo insert will finally be the motivation for me to get a Zippo. I've found the one I want to get, now I just need to order it. I hope she enjoys the lights, because I will certainly enjoy these blades. This community is too dang awesome! Stay tuned for videos of everything! Thanks for looking! Go check out Girl on the Edge's channel. She's another teen girl that's into this EDC stuff.

Click here to go to her channel!

Knife Collection Update 9-8-15

These are all the knives and multi-tools currently in my collection. It's a pretty small group, which I'm happy with. I carry and really enjoy most of these. There's only 2 or 3 more I'd like to add to it.

Starting in the top left corner is my two fixed blades. I've got a Ka-bar TDI and an Esee Izula. I'm actually still trying to sell the TDI, so that won't be in the collection much longer. I love the Izula. It's the best EDC fixed blade for less than $50.

Continuing on, in the top right corner from left to right is a 5.11 knife, Zero Tolerance 0566, and a Spyderco Endura. The 5.11 was one of the first real knives I got. The ZT 0566 isn't really carried much anymore, but I still like to have it as part of the collection. I love the Endura so far. It's the newest knife to the collection, but I can tell it'll be one of my favorites.

The very bottom row consists of the Spyderco Ladybug, Cold Steel Mini Tuff Lite, Victorinox Classic, Leatherman Squirt P4, Wenger EvoGrip 11, and a Victorinox Alox Bantam. Those are all my small options, and I enjoy carrying them all. The Ladybug and the Classic get carried the most. I'm hoping I can start carrying the Wenger more, because it's a really neat tool.

That's my entire collection at the moment. I'm really happy with where it's at. I genuinely enjoy the majority of these blades, and they all actually get used. I'd say the 0566 is the only safequeen, so maybe I'll start carrying that more. Anyways, that's about it. Thanks for looking!

New Gear August 2015

I wanted to get this post up on the last day of August, but oh well, guess it's better late than never. August was a good month as far as new gear goes. I wanted to make some upgrades to my EDC and was able to pick up some cool stuff. I'm happy with the majority of the purchases I made. The photo above is missing one thing, which was the Cantu Bruner Designs Bullet pen. I didn't like it that much, so I sold it and forgot to take a group photo of everything new before I shipped it off. It just wasn't really the pen for me. It was cool and all, but it wasn't comfortable to write with whatsoever.

I got a really sweet Wenger EvoGrip 11 from a good friend of mine. Thanks a ton to her! I've never owned a Wenger before, so it's interesting to compare the tools to Victorinox's. It's a real shame that Wengers aren't being produced anymore, because it's a great company. I know Victorinox turned some of the Wenger models into Victorinoxs, so maybe I'll have to try some of those out.

Everything else in the photo was picked up from Amazon. I got the Pelican 1010 case to use for an EDC kit, but it's not going to work out well for that. It's great quality and all, just not what I was expecting. The Fenix E05 flashlight has really impressed me. I'm not a flashlight person at all, but I do see the use in having a nice one now. It's been working out quite nicely so far. The pen I picked up is a Parker Jotter. Everyone always talks about these, and I figured it was time I tried one out. I wasn't a fan of it initially, but after using it, I've come to like it a lot. It writes nicely, and I love the color of it. I picked up a pack of Moleskine Volant Extra Small notebooks to go along with the Jotter. They weren't exactly what I was expecting, but I think they'll work out well in the end. They're purple, so that's always a plus. Lastly, the most surprising purchase was the Spyderco Endura. I tried one a while ago and really enjoyed it. I wanted to get one of the FFG ones in purple FRN and finally did. It's a fantastic knife for sure. I wanted a big knife that would work well in my carry. I think this will fit my needs perfectly. It's definitely bigger than most things I carry, but it's so slim and lightweight that it's not even noticeable. That was probably my favorite purchase of the month. 

I don't think I'll go this crazy in any of the next few months. With these additions, my carry is pretty close to perfect. I may buy one more knife in September, but that should be it for now. I'll make the next update at the end of this month if I do get something new. Thanks for looking! Stay tuned for videos on some of this stuff!

September 2015 Updates

Dang, it's been a little while since my last post. It's finally that time of year where I go back to school. I've been busy with that along with some other things. Now that everything is settling down, I'm going to get back into the swing of things.

I've got a ton of videos I still need to film, so stay tuned for those over the next few weeks. One of the videos will be about my school EDC. I don't carry a lot at school, but it still should make for an interesting video. Other videos will be about my EDC rotation and some knife talk/rambling videos.

I'm hoping to post at least once a week on here and YouTube. That may not be possible every week, but that's what I'll shoot for initially. I've also found that I have a pretty big problem wasting my time on the internet. Most of the stuff I look at is the same repetitive crap. Obviously I'll still need the internet for some stuff, but my goal is to seriously limit how much time I spend on it. I'm going to try to hold my self to 1 hour a day. Considering I probably spend 5+ hours currently, that would be quite a big reduction.

Anyways, enough about my life. I've got a couple more pieces of gear I'd like to sell. I may buy one more knife, but not sure if that will end up happening. My carry has become pretty consistent. I like my setup and don't see it changing anytime soon. If you follow me on Instagram, you can see what I've been carrying the past month or two. An EDC update is sorta overdue, so I'll get around to that eventually.

That's enough rambling for now. Basically, videos and blog posts will be slowing down. Sorta like what they've been like the past few weeks. I've found my perfect EDC at the moment and don't think I'll be buying much else. I have a lot of cool stuff that I need to post about, so stay tuned! Thanks for looking!