futility belt

mark asked what do you carry around and why? yesterday on boingboing and while i'm a little late to the party i thought i'd take the time to jot it down. a year ago my friend dan asked me this and i replied simply with "a palm m100, a samsung thirty.five.hundred cell phone, two swap meet knives and a wallet". the gear has changed a bit since then so i figure i might as well catalog it now so i can have some sort of record a couple years in the future to go "wow, i carried all that with me? now i've got two gadgets that do everything those gadgets used to do." to.

pants [almost always cargo or a derivitave]
:: obey giant wallet :: keeper of the money, the bus pass and identification. i keep mike ness' guitar pick i got at a social distortion show in the change pocket and it's kinda a good luck charm. it zips all the way around to keep everything safely contained in the wallet and it has andre the giant's face on it. what more could i ask for in a wallet?
:: carabiner keyring :: i've got my keyrings seperated into "office" "home" and "utility" so at any given time i have quick access to my keys. the "utility" ring holds a bottle opener and a photon keychain light.
:: swap meet knife :: prison shank, letter opener, nail cleaner, lock pick, screwdriver. i paid five dollars for one of these at a computer swap meet and it's done it's task every day for the past six months. it's high time i took it in to get it sharpened but for the price i could probably just replace it with a new one. years ago i used to carry around a real nice knife [spiderco] but i was too afraid to use it for anything other than opening a random package. in the end it did what all nice things do - it got stolen.
:: lg 4ne1 cell phone :: the speaker quality isn't that great and the microphone is halfway up my head but i do dig my cell phone. it replaced the afformentioned samsung which lasted a good two years under some pretty harsh conditions. fortunatley the lg 4ne1 is holding up pretty well and i use the wireless web function day in and out to post blog entries and admin some systems on my lab network. i'll probably replace it once sprint puts out a low cost camera phone.
:: random three to six inch black zip ties :: zip ties are the duct tape of the geek set. they do everything from quick and dirty auto repair and make a handy tie when it comes to bondage. i hear they keep wires organized too. conversely, it's often far easier to carry around a bundle of zip ties than it is to carry arround a roll of tape.

timbuk2 xl messenger bag [i - and a small cambodian family - live out of this bag]
:: sony cybershot dsc-p20 :: when i got this it was a hundred and ninety.nine bucks at best buy. it's only one point three megapixels and without expanding the memory card to thirty.two megabytes [thanks ghent] from it's default eight i'd be able to take ten pictures.
:: riovolt sp250 mp3 cd player :: it's an mp3 cd player and it has a built in fm tuner. this is a happy instance of "you got your chocolate in my peanut butter" because i listen to kevin and bean on kroq in the mornings and switch over to mp3s after they're off the air.
:: cd folio full of mp3s, operating systems and blank cds :: everything from win2k and xp to linux and os x to a little over a hundred of my favorite albums at 192kpbs across twenty cds. sure an ipod would be nice but the versatility of cds still can't be beat.
:: sony mdr-v150 headphones :: they're not top of the line and they're about to be replaced but the mdr-v150's are nice general purpose ear cups that i can throw in my bag and not worry about screwing up.
:: composition book :: i jot down every little thought that runs thru my head in case i come up with something golden. it's taken the place of my palm pilot and i must admit that while not as organized i tend to take better notes on something i can pipe my own handwriting to.
:: assorted pens :: for composition book or blank cds.
:: assorted los angeles and orange county bus schedules :: you gotta know where the hell you're going. while mta gives individual schedules for each route octa handles things a little better by compacting all their listings in a quarterly printed magazine style book. people are constant frightened by my "public transit-fu" and now i've gone and given my secret away.
:: one ounce flask zipper pull :: normally carting around vodka. you never know when you'll need a drink.
:: travel sewing kit :: hey, don't laugh. i like to be prepared.
:: painkillers :: again, i like to be prepared.
:: hoodie :: it leaves my bag only in the summer months [only to be replaced by a beach towel]

besides the laptop [which i haul around now and again] that covers what i've got on me. seeing as how i carry my bag with me at all times i'm really never far from anything i'd ever need -- sort of a makeshift utility belt. so, what do you carry around?