I’m doing things a little different this week. My goal in life is to eventually be able to make a living through writing. Being realistic, I don’t know if I’ll ever get to that point, but a guy’s gotta dream, right? In the short term, though, I have a more realistic goal: to have this site at least pay for itself. Eventually I hope to put ads on here — discretely, of course — but I’m not there yet. Now, though I’m starting with Amazon Affiliate links. If you’re not familiar with how the links work, when you click on them it takes you to the product on Amazon’s page. If you buy it — or anything on Amazon during that visit — Amazon kicks me back a tiny percentage for getting you there with the link. For media links like songs or movies I’ll still make alternative links — Spotify, iTunes, YouTube when I can find it — but now you know why I’m leading with the link to Amazon.
To start this off, this week’s Five Things are gadgets and tools that I use on a regular basis and make my life a lot easier. Let me know if you have any useful gadgets you can’t live without in the comments!
I’ve been seeking out a great keyboard for my keyboard-less devices since I first bought a folding keyboard for my faux Palm Pilot, the Handspring Treo Prism back in the 90’s. I’ve tried a number of keyboards with iPads over the years, but I love this one with my iPad Air. It matches the Apple aesthetic and looks like a little laptop — I’ve had more than one person mistake it for a MacBook Air. I won’t pretend the keys are the finest in the world, but they’re responsive enough, they’re backlit, and most days I take the iPad with the Brydge instead of lugging around my laptop. Love it. 
As you might have guessed from above, I’m in a predominantly Apple-tech universe. However, I have plenty of devices that require Micro USB for charging, too. Rather than carry two cables around, I carry one similar to this (the one I have isn’t made anymore, but this is pretty close). It’s not super long, but the convenience more than makes up for the short length, and having both types of connector ends has allowed me to help Android-using friends when their batteries run low.
I don’t know if this the best power bank out there, but I’ve had it for the last four years and — with the state of the battery on my ancient iPhone — I rarely go anywhere without it. The wonderful thing is, with 10,000 mAh I don’t have to recharge it all the time. Oh, and the ability to charge two devices at once is handy, too!
I’ve always wanted a Moleskine notebook but haven’t been able to justify the price. One of these days. In the meantime, when I was shopping for a notebook, I decided to give the AmazonBasics notebook a try (it’s almost six bucks cheaper). Like I said, I haven’t used a real Moleskine, but this is a great little notebook. Rediscovering writing (with awesome colored pens!) has been a lot of fun, and the pages don’t bleed through — I’m not using Sharpies, but the ink is still heavier than a traditional ball point.
Above I mentioned that often I just carry my iPad with the Brydge these days, this is what I carry it in. I’ve tried a lot of gear bags over the years — oversized messenger bags, gear backpacks, tactical bags — and they all have their benefits, but this guy is great for its size — and price. Usually I carry everything above, along with whatever paperback I’m reading and more. It’s small enough that it’s barely noticeable.