Not Necessarily Interesting News

After work today I was walking up Broadway and passed Century 21, a huge department store in Manhattan. I thought I’d duck in and look at shoes really quick. Little did I know that a few minutes later I’d be threatening someone with serious bodily injury.

So I went in and looked around for a few minutes. After about 5 mins I decided their prices really weren’t that great and they had nothing I liked. The entire time I had my Shure earphones in and was listening to the latest ‘This American Life’. With those things in I can hear nothing but my music/podcast.

Once I decided the place sucked, I headed towards the door on to Cortlandt. There was a lady in front of me lugging a big ass suitcase trying to get out so I waited a sec for her to get out the door then followed her. I get about 20 feet down the sidewalk and I feel a tap on my shoulder. I look over and there’s a dude in a blazer talking at me. I pop out a headphone and he says ‘Would you mind following me, sir?’ I looked him up and down and said ‘Actually, yes, I do mind.’ then turned and continued on down towards the subway entrance. I feel another tap and turn around, this time a bit more pissed and say ‘What?’. He kid of steps in front of me and says ‘Our door beeped when you left and I need to look in your backpack.’ I told him ‘Like hell you do.’ then stepped around him and kept walking.

Next thing I know there’s about 7-8 of these blazer clad goons standing around me on the sidewalk telling me to follow them. I looked at the guy there that looked like he was in charge and said ‘You guys better get the fuck out of my way or we’re going to have a problem.’ They continued to follow me and another one stepped in front of me blocking my path. I then dared him to ‘fucking touch me and find out what happens.’ I stepped around that goon and got to the top of the stairs headed down to the Cortlandt Street subway stop. As I approached the stairs two of these large guys turned to face me and completely blocked the subway entrance. I walked right up two one of them and said you better get out of my way or you’re going down those stairs the hard way. About now a few people behind me start yelling at them to get the fuck out of the way. I love New Yorkers. 🙂

These two morons stepped aside and I continued down the stairs. Guess who kept following me. By now there were probably 10 of these guys. I get to the turnstile and swipe my card and one of them jumps in front of me and says that I really need to follow them. I again said get out of my way and tried to push past. He kept dancing in front of me. I looked at shorty in front of me and told him he was intimidating me and I will be calling the cops and pulled out my phone. He told me to ‘Go right ahead. They’ll search you and your bags.’ I told him he was full of shit because there’s no probable cause and that he and his buddies had no right to detain me and if he didn’t move he’d be seeing me in court or be hurt. His choice. He apparently got the nod from the leader over my shoulder because he then stepped out of my way.

By then my swipe of the card had expired and I had to re-swipe to get in. I think that’s what pisses me off the most. Those fuckers cost me an extra fare because of their bullshit.

Seriously, do I match the profile of a shoplifter? Those that know me know I do not fit the ‘shoplifter’ profile. I’m so far from that profile it’s not even funny. I’ve never experienced anything like I did today. They knew they couldn’t touch me and I knew that too. I wasn’t intimidated by their antics as much as pissed off that they were getting in my way and implying that I was a shoplifter.

So, in closing: Fuck you, Century 21!

• Went out car looking again today. Found a nice looking 545i locally. Gonna go back tomorrow possibly and test drive it. #
• The mailman brought presents. I'm so excited to have to do this for the third time in 8 years. http://twitpic.com/2o6mxj #
• Shannon on car shopping:"Now I know why I like stick shifts, it reminds me of my penis!" Me:"Wait, what? Do you need to tell me something?" #

• After 2 wonderful weekends at home it's time to hit the road again. I'm DC bound this week. #
• Yesterday my right eye was clearer than the left. Now the opposite. Whee for uneven healing. 🙂 #
• Being right eye dominant and having your right eye be the blurry one is verrrry annoying. #
• #BWI your rental car shuttles suck balls. Too few, too full, too far apart. #

I was asked by a friend how to pack for a long trip using only a carryon bag. As I travel somewhere about 35-40 weeks a year I guess I might know a thing or two about packing light/efficiently.

Before I show the best way to pack first I’ll abuse my power on this site and make you listen to some other rules for travel. If you’d like to get straight to the packing and miss my rant click here:

Some basic rules for travel:

• Never check bags if at all possible. For me, the biggest reason is that I spend enough time in airports as it is without having to show up early to check a bag or wait around 20+ minutes waiting on the bag lottery with 150 other people. I have places to be. I sure don’t want to spend more time in an airport. Another reason is that the airlines can’t lose what they don’t have.
• You know you’re going to go through a metal detector. While you’re waiting in line get all that metal into your bag ahead of time(Keys, change, watch, phone, belt buckle, etc). Unzip your laptop bag. Untie your laces if you have to. In other words “BE READY WHEN YOU GET TO THE XRAY MACHINE.” Stop acting like it’s some sort of surprise that they’re gonna make you take off your shoes or that your belt buckle will set off the detector. If it’s taking you a while, let others past you. Again, I have places to be, grandpa. You’re slowing me down.
• Yes, the TSA agents are surly. Get over it. They get paid no more than a burger flipper and now they are in a position of power. Of course they’re going to abuse it. You _will_ lose any argument with them no matter how right you are.
• When it comes time to board the plane stand back until your group is called. Crowding the agent isn’t going to make her call your group any sooner. And while you’re at it standing back, stop muttering under your breath how unfair it is that Exec Platinum and Platinum members get to board first. I racked up 150,000 Fequent Flyer miles last year. You’re damn straight I feel I should be treated special. The airline knows I paid $700 for my last minute ticket and you paid $125 3 months ago. It’s us business travelers that keep the airlines alive so they can sell you cheap seats. Get over it.
• Once you’re on the plane find your row and get in it. Don’t stand there with your fat ass blocking the aisle while you dig around for a book. There’s 100 other people out on the jet way that would love to get in from the heat/cold too.
• Yes, I know that most airlines don’t serve food anymore. You know why? Because you’re too cheap to buy a ticket that would cover a meal. It’s called competition. When consumers only look at one thing, price, they don’t realize what else they are losing. I’m paying a lot more for my ticket than you and I don’t get a meal either if I’m back in coach. Bring snacks from home. It’s a lot cheaper than $3 for a cookie from the stewardesses.
• Yes, babies happen. You’re gonna end up next to one. One of the best traveling gadgets I’ve bought is a nice set of expensive Shure noise-isolation earbuds. No more baby sounds.

Ok, enough griping. Here’s how to fit 2 weeks of clothes into a single carryon bag.

Start with a decent carryon. There’s two schools of thought when it comes to carryon bags. Buy cheap so it’s cheap to replace it when it falls apart under the strain of a lot of travel or buy expensive with a really good manufacturer’s warranty against damage. My choice is a really nice Briggs and Riley. They have the best warranty around. They replace it if it’s ever damaged, even by the airlines. No questions asked. The only time you need to buy another is if you get bored with the old one.

I’m going to show how to pack all this into this bag with plenty of room to spare.

I’ll pack the following:

• 4 pairs of pants
• 4 polo shirts
• 2 long sleeve dress shirts
• 3 t-shirts
• Workout clothes
• Jammies
• 6 pairs of socks
• 6 pairs of boxers
• 1 pair of shoes
• toiletries
• Room to spare

Start with layering the pants along the bottom of the bag. Let them hang over the edges like in the pictures. Alternate the overhanging layers.

Now is where the art comes into packing this tightly. Forget everything your mother ever taught you about how to fold clothes. Her method is totally wrong when it comes to packing bags. Instead of folding our clothes we’re going to roll them. If we do this step right we will also minimize wrinkles and ironing time when we get to our destination. A good thing in those countries that don’t stock ironing boards as standard in all rooms.

First, lay the shirt out flat on its front.

Then fold it on half.

Fold the sleeves over the shirt.

Start rolling from the bottom. This is where you need to slow down and do it right. If you take the time to smooth wrinkles as you roll that means you’ll have less wrinkles when you unpack. Remember, wrinkles are the enemy. Both for packing and in a business meeting. Wrinkles eat packing space.

When you’re done you’ll have a nice little shirt sausage.

In this pic you can see a single folded tshirt takes about the same space as 4 rolled tshirts. That’s a dramatic difference.

Do the same for your dress shirts. Spend the time now to keep wrinkles out of the shirts. Mine are a bit wrinkly as I pulled them out of the laundry for this demo. For a real trip I’d probably iron mine first. Yours should have less wrinkles at this point.

Once you’re done rolling you’ll have a nice pile like this.

That’s 4 polo shirts, 2 dress shirts, 4 t-shirts, and 5 pairs of boxers in the space that just a few folded shirts would occupy.

Now it’s time to get them in the bag. This is the easy part. I put my shoes along the top. On a real trip I’d put them into plastic bags to keep them from dirtying the clothes. Before you pack the shoes in put your toiletries into the shoes to avoid dead space. It’s a good spot for bulky things like deodorant or electric razors if you like. Then start putting your sausages in. Make sure not to crush them in too tightly or you’ll add wrinkles.

Add another layer on top of those. For this packing that is only two more shirts. I could easily fit in another few shirts, a sport jacket, or maybe some books or business documents. For me, I pack a GPS between layers and put a small bedside fan in one corner of the bag.

After all the rolls are in start folding the pants in over the top and alternate sides.

From the side you can see I’m nowhere near capacity of this bag.

I place all my socks unfolded in the upper compartment.

Ready to zip closed.

Lid is closed. Notice that no stuffing will be necessary to zip it shut. Also see that I didn’t use the bellows that could give me an extra 2 inches of depth. If you use that the bag will not fit in an overhead.

Closing thoughts.
Wrinkles are the enemy. Wrinkles trap air. Trapped air is wasted space. Take the time and roll those shirts tightly/neatly.
Make sure to pack all the rolls with the loose end down or they’ll all unravel on you.
Bring along an e-reader and MP3 player to fight boredom on the flight. Or watch movies on your laptop. Rip the movies to your hard drive so you don’t need to carry DVDs.
Enjoy your trip.

If you found this useful please leave me a comment telling me so.