What's hiding in my bag?

(My press was broken at the time, so I was forced to drink 7-eleven coffee for several weeks...)

I'm Mike and I have 62Gb of portable storage in my bag (excluding the 45Mb my several generations old phone can carry). Half of this is the music on my iPod and iPad--and it would be more if not for the wonders of modern file compression. The rest is comprised of documents, apps, pictures, etc.

I feel that this number is important because it can define not only one's current virtual possessions, but also expresses the potential (or limit) to what those possessions can be in the future. I know that (in theory) if I was presented with a 63Gb file, I would be unable to do anything with it. The reality, of course, is that that number is much lower.

My point here is that very often these sorts of technical specifications can not only define the device to which they are ascribed, but also to the person who uses the device. It is just another way in which the machines we use begin to reflect back upon us.

Moving on, then. Items such as chapstick, sunglasses and hand sanitizer have pretty straightforward uses and meanings (I don't like chapped lips, all this academic handshaking weirds me out, and I don't want the sun to burn out my retinas).

My wallet contains a strange, ever-changing number of small, odd things: Money, obviously. Cards, ID, apartment keys and often SEPTA tokens.

The rest is mostly for note-taking or jotting down random ideas I'll never see through. I do also take notes on my iPad from time to time, with no clearly evident method to which medium I choose. There is a tactile element to writing with pen and paper that an iPad can't provide, however, the ease of typing and simply emailing my notes to myself after each class provides an incentive to pick the high-tech option.