My minimal packing list... looking good?

Hey guys! Want to hear some funny shit?! My HP just fucking crapped out on me. I got home from work and it was frozen, so I did a hard reset and on the way back up it couldn't recognize the hard disk. Did a couple of tests, all failed. Hours later and I'm not even getting a response from the Power button. I just lost almost 150 gigs of movies, music, documents, pictures, etc... And this was TOTALLY unexpected. Currently, I'm using my moms Macbook Pro to talk to check in with you guys. LMAO! This is ridiculous!

Anyway, I think for a long time I knew that I wanted to go in the direction of a Mac. Apple products are severely overpriced but you really do pay for quality even if they do run out of life because of planned obsolescence. I'm a musician and in my spare time I write and record and using Macs in school, I grew to love them better than my PC at home for recording. I tend to take really good care of my computers, constantly keeping things clean and running automatic virus checks and whatnot, but I've never been able to sustain a PC. After a while they become slow and clunky and I'm fed up with hard drives always crashing on me. I can't even begin to tell you how much I've lost in the last 5 years and 3 computers. The nice thing about the new Mac Air's is that on top of being really light, they do have that solid state flash drive which has been getting rave reviews. The machine is quicker, quieter, and lighter because of it.

I'm not just one of these guys who sees people with nice things and wants them without giving it any thought. I've extremely thoughtful and tend to overanalyze a lot of things I do and see. So I think this was my last straw with PC's and I'm gonna go for the Mac Air, no doubt. The only thing I could see myself using a disc drive for would be to burn CDs and whatnot which I rarely do anyway. The reason why I'm going for the 13' is because it comes with an SD slot and of course the bigger screen and stronger specs for not much more. The only customization I'd do to it would be to add 4gb of ram instead of the two they put in.

As for traveling light, that's exactly what I want to attain with being able to travel with my bag all day and not realize I'm carrying all my shit with me. I just want to be able to get up and go and not worry about anyway.

Sounds like you'd actually get some use out of it then. Try and avoid buying the memory from Apple. They truly bend you over on RAM prices. There are a few memory sites out there that you can find out exactly what type of memory to buy and some cheap spots to do it. Maybe one of the other Mac users can give actual links.

About the HP - Pull the hard drive and go get a connector - http://www.fonerbooks.com/laptop10.htm

The fact that the power button doesn't work points to something wrong with the mobo rather than a hard drive failure. You may be able to recover that 150 gigs of media. Of course, backing things up is always a good idea, too.

Ah, well. I suppose that's a lesson in backing up your data. I'd definitely look into cloud-based backups via a service like Dropbox if you're going with the Air.

Normally I'd agree and say don't buy the RAM from Apple, but unfortunately they've become even more dick-ish when it comes to upgrades with the new Air models. The RAM is actually soldered to the board. So you're SOL if you don't buy it from them initially.

Apple has also recently forced one of the companies making a faster 256gb replacement SSD for the Air to shut down production. Again, because they kind of suck when it comes to stuff like that. So if you want the extra gigs, you might as well buy that from them too.

At that point you'll be spending around $1,700-1,800. I can't help but look at that kind of money and go, damn, that's around two months traveling cash if you're frugal.

Update on the computer. For some reason it only turns on now if it's plug into the adapter. Otherwise the battery is basically dead too, even though I know it's juiced up. I posted on Yahoo!Answers and got a few responses I can try. The hard drive still runs smoothly. No clicks or electrical burn marks on it, it's just not reading. So I'm gonna figure out a way to get into the drive and get my stuff. I know I should backup my things more often but I'm always so lazy about it.

Also, the Mac is seriously a pain in my ass in the financial department. It was the last thing I planned on buying but now that my comp is done, I may be buying it sooner than I'd like to. Luckily for me, Whole Foods is considering a promotion for me already after about 3 weeks of work. LOL! So I should recoup those losses pretty quick. But yeah, that is definitely some good travel money even though I do plan on staying stationary for the better part of my journey in a year. I considered the Mac Pro with 128 SSD but that brings it up to about 1600 not including the taxes. The Air with upgraded ram is about 1400 not including taxes.

I'm hoping to have some of these items that I need to buy taken care of this Christmas. I sent out lists to my sisters and parents. HAHA!

DavidAM wrote:Update on the computer. For some reason it only turns on now if it's plug into the adapter. Otherwise the battery is basically dead too, even though I know it's juiced up. I posted on Yahoo!Answers and got a few responses I can try. The hard drive still runs smoothly. No clicks or electrical burn marks on it, it's just not reading. So I'm gonna figure out a way to get into the drive and get my stuff. I know I should backup my things more often but I'm always so lazy about it.

Also, the Mac is seriously a pain in my ass in the financial department. It was the last thing I planned on buying but now that my comp is done, I may be buying it sooner than I'd like to. Luckily for me, Whole Foods is considering a promotion for me already after about 3 weeks of work. LOL! So I should recoup those losses pretty quick. But yeah, that is definitely some good travel money even though I do plan on staying stationary for the better part of my journey in a year. I considered the Mac Pro with 128 SSD but that brings it up to about 1600 not including the taxes. The Air with upgraded ram is about 1400 not including taxes.

I'm hoping to have some of these items that I need to buy taken care of this Christmas. I sent out lists to my sisters and parents. HAHA!

Batteries fail. Honestly, with how good hardware is now, it's usually the first thing to go. Depending on how often you charge something, you can easily kill a battery completely within a couple years, or severely cut down on its charging capacity within a year. That goes for Apple products, too. It never occurred to me you didn't try to boot it up via the AC adapter first.

Of course, no clicks and no burn marks doesn't mean the hard drive hasn't failed. But if the battery is the only problem, you can pick up a new one off eBay for almost any model notebook for around $30.

Also, in another knock to minimalism, 150 gigs of movies? When I realized that I was downloading more music than I could ever listen to, or movies than I could ever watch, I started restricting myself. Now I stream television from Hulu, rent movies from Netflix (often instant), and stick to music I can buy or borrow myself. Which has been tough, but what's the point of simplifying your life if you're dragging around 1,000 movies and 10,000 albums on your computer? That would be like carrying around those hundreds of cable channels with nothing on that people often joke about. It may not take up physical space, but it's got to carry about the same psychological space, as far as the ownership mentality goes. I think you'll find that you'll enjoy the content you do download or purchase a lot more when you're not just grabbing everything that's out there.

Plus, you start trying out other content artists are publishing for cheap or free that you might not otherwise give a chance to, like myself and the new Girl Talk album.

On top of that, more of your money goes to the artists, or at least contributes to them via advertising, and you put a lot more thought into your purchases.

Obviously I've given a lot of advice on simply not dropping that much cash, and at this point I feel like a broken record, so this will be the last time. Currently, SSD hard drives just aren't worth it (especially if you're pricing them out direct from the Apple Store).

You could get a refurbished Macbook Pro 13.3" from Apple for under $1,000. Would it weigh a pound and a half more than the Air? Well, yeah. But it also has more processing power, upgradeable RAM, upgradeable HDD (even to SSD if you so chose in the future), a superdrive, costs anywhere from $500-800 less, and you're not even really in a backpacking/carry-on situation. And if you're truly concerned about pack weight, 1.5lbs is about the same difference as ditching a single pair of jeans.

Actually, I do clean out my movies and music folders very often. I have started streaming from Hulu and Netflix as well. The only movies I keep are my favorites and anything else that has been in the folder for more than a few months, I delete or I attempt to watch. I've been getting through 2 movies every day or so for a few months now, so I'm getting through a lot of them and then deleting them straight away. My music folder I like to keep clean as well. If I don't like an artist or album, I'll simply delete it. Recently I went through and deleted about 5 artists and a few albums. Very rarely do I download anything unless I'm following the artist or it came highly recommended. I use my Last.fm and Pandora accounts to find new music. Also keep in mind that I'm an aspiring musician myself, so music is important to me. But I try and balance my minimal state of mind with how much space anything is taking up. I don't like to feel bogged down mentally either so I make sure to keep things clean, which is why I can't understand why my computer crashed.

I agree completely about buying music and if I really enjoy what I download I'll usually buy the hard copy or mostly stick to the digital. I currently only own about 6 hard copies of albums. I also enjoy going to shows for my favorite bands which is the best way to support them.

Also, I was considering a refurbished Mac either from eBay or the Apple site, assuming they sell them used, I haven't checked.

DavidAM wrote:Also, I was considering a refurbished Mac either from eBay or the Apple site, assuming they sell them used, I haven't checked.

Apple does sell refurbs via the Apple Store. I'd recommend that or an official Apple retailer over eBay, because you get full warranty support.

But if you're carting around 150 gigs of music and movies, I can't imagine what would happen if you didn't clear it out as often as you say. You really have 150 gigs of favorites?

What I'm really suggesting is that instead of collecting everything, and deleting it later, simply don't download it in the first place until you're ready to use it.

Sometimes computers fail. A battery will inevitably fail, but is normally an easy fix (assuming that a particular device has a user replaceable battery). That's why regular backups are important. You can extend the life of a machine by taking care of it, but that doesn't mean it won't arbitrarily die one day.

On top of that, at any given point a computer could be stolen, have a drink spilled on it, fall off a table, etc.

I got my mid-2009 13" MacBook Pro (2.5 GHz, 4 GB RAM, 250 GB HD, AppleCare) from eBay for $780 last spring when the new models came out.

I buy everything used if I can help it; it's usually a boon for the pocketbook as well as the planet. Those five Icebreaker shirts I mentioned? I got four of them between $20-22, and a long sleeve 260 weight for $33. Retail price is $75 and $90, respectively.

I got my iPhone, Kindle, Canon S90, keyboard, scanner, cable modem, and remote all used from eBay or Craigslist. The bed and desk in my apartment pic were both free from Craigslist, and this chair was $40.

And you can always renegotiate if something you bought isn't as described. My MacBook had scratches on it, so I got $50 back and Apple replaced the case anyway when I sent it in for an unrelated repair. I recently bought a sheet-fed scanner so I could further reduce my paper clutter; it didn't scan color correctly so I got half my money back. I don't really need color anyway.

Also, you'd be surprised how often you can find things listed as broken, get it for next to nothing, and then find out it's still under warranty. That's how I got a Kindle for $48.

Damn! That is awesome AceTracer! Definitely something I'm gonna look into doing.

As for the 150GB that I have just lost. About 30 was music, movies was about 30 as well... and everything else was applications and documents. I write a lot.

Things I'd add:

sunglasses
hat (for sun protection)
rain gear
daypack (for shopping for hiking or carryon for flights)

You don't list any medications. I wish I was that healthy.
Does your cross country train trip include Canada? Otherwise I wonder why you list a passport.

I have an afro. That is my hat. LOL! I already wear glasses and will probably skip on Sunglasses since I'm not a huge fan of them. I enjoy rain but I probably should pack a light jacket for those rainy days/weeks in Hawaii and the Pacific Northwest. I got the Deuter Futura 28 as a gift this past Christmas and it's small enough to be my daypack if I unpack my clothes wherever I'm staying, but I will look into another one.

I actually choose to eat right and exercise as a way of staying fit and healthy. Meditation and Yoga help me maintain peace of mind and stay stress-free.

I list the passport because I plan on being gone at least a year living away from home and in case plans change and I want to travel overseas or up into British Columbia than at least I'll have it with me.

I've actually changed my list a bit and will probably do a test packing in the backpack.

I agree with the non-Mac Laptop bit. I'm writing this on a Samsung Netbook that cost me US$250. I back up the essentials on a portable drive and the ultra-essentials on Google Docs every chance I get.

A cheap laptop frees you from the fear of losing or breaking something so costly.

I actually have a complete list of lightweight packing suggestions on Escape Stories: http://escapestories.com/escape-gear-essentials/

it sounds like you've got most of it covered.

~Sage

3 computers in 5 years?? What do you DO to your machines? I've had the same D*ell laptop for 3 years now and had NO problems with it. $600 off eBay. If you're right into the music side of things then for sure, go with an Apple. But don't blame your 3-computers-in-5-years problems on the fact they were PCs

NB: Put the apostrophe in D*ell to stop Bootsnall automatically link-ising it

Well the last three computers I had were all used to begin with. Come to think of it, I've never owned a brand new computer. The first was the family desktop that was put in my room. By that point it was already close to 5 years old and had been through numerous crashes and hard drive replacements. The second was an IBM from the early 90s that had less than a gig of RAM and was outfitted with a 60GB harddrive. The third was a Dell that my sister passed on to me after she purchased her Mac. It was already over a year old when I got it and had overheating issues and a slow processor. Used that like that for 2-3 years before buying a lightly used HP on eBay for less than half the selling price. I still have that HP. Going on 2 years now. After that last crash a year ago, I replaced the hard drive and made sure to back everything up to my external. I still have that died drive as well to see if maybe I can pull some stuff off of it. So that explains why PCs have always failed me, I guess. I think because I took care of them it helped them to last longer but right now I could really do with a lightweight laptop.

Also, I spent 2 months traveling. Yes, the trip was a lot shorter than I anticipated. But, in case anyone was wondering, I did upload a video to my YouTube channel showing what I brought with me and explaining everything. Check it out and if you're still around let me know what you think. I think I packed really well for the trip. Everything had a purpose and a use and by the time I got home, my pack was even lighter!

http://youtu.be/QbwuIQO_zfY

Hi David. I hope you don't mind if I borrow your thread. I have a similar question and I don't want to start a whole new thread for it.

I'm trying to pack for a three (or more) month camping trek through Ireland, and I'm having some trouble getting my gear down and selecting a pack for it. I know the typical advice is to pack lighter, and people report not using half of what they bring. However, the electronics and photography categories below are things I carry with me and use every single day; I'll be camping so I need that gear; medicine and hygiene is non-negotiable; and the rest is clothing and includes less than what I've seen on some other "minimal" packing lists.

I've done lengthy treks before, but none in the last ten years or so. It turns out that I'm older now and can't carry as much as I used. The most obvious category to cut out is the heaviest: the photography. However, the second-most main reason I'm taking the trip is to take photos, so I want to have my good SLR gear. I have a decent enough pocket camera (Canon G12) but after a recent experiment where I used only it for a week and then reviewed my shots, I was entirely satisfied with only a small percentage of them. My list now is:

Clothing (worn)
• heavy shirt
• heavy socks
• hiking boots
• light socks
• pants
• sunglasses
• t-shirt
• underwear

Clothing (packed)
• heavy shirt
• 4 pr. heavy socks
• light shirt
• 4 pr. light socks
• 3 pr. medium socks
• pants
• 1 pr. shoes
• sleep pants/shirt
• t-shirt
• 3 pr. underwear

Clothing (cold weather, packed or worn)
• gloves*
• jacket
• knit cap*
• thermal underwear
• scarf

Medicine
• first aid kit
• prescription meds

Camping
• cooking kit*
• poncho
• puncture repair kit
• sleeping bag
• sleeping pad
• tent

Miscellaneous
• maps
• notebooks
• passport
• phrasebooks
• sewing kit
• travel documents

Hygiene
• bar soap
• 3 oz. conditioner
• dental floss
• eyeglasses
• lens case
• 3 oz. lens solution
• 3 oz. shampoo
• spare contacts
• toothbrush
• toothpaste
• towel

Electronics
• batteries
• battery charger
• data logger
• DVR
• flashlight
• laptop
• mouse
• OTG HD
• P&S camera
• P&S charger
• plug adapters
• power brick
• SD cards
• spare P&S battery
• USB cables

Photography*
• DSLR
• 24-105/4
• 35/1.4
• 70-300/4-5.6 OR 200/2.8*
• 85/1.8
• battery charger
• card reader
• CF cards
• spare batteries
• tripod*

*Can be left out if conditions warrant or weight is absolutely too much.

Any thoughts?