Like I mentioned in a very recent post, I don't carry a large knife on my belt for that very reason, plus I hate the feel of a large knife in my pocket. Even a small Buck folding pocketknife - I don't think they're made anymore - seemed too big to be comfortable. I started carrying a tiny Gerber Micro LST (1.5" blade) as a keychain fob.

A few years back I started taking the train from my suburb to another suburb closer to Chicago. I got tired of carrying my full-size briefcase, so instead I started carrying a black Eagle Creek Guide Bag (I think that's the right model).

It was just big enough to carry my cell phone, pda, a medium-sized note pad & pen, and misc stuff. I started carrying it just about everywhere I went since one of my goals was to keep my pda with me (much like a knife - its no good if you don't have it when you need it). People pretty much got used to me carrying it around. There were a few purse jokes, but Sienfeld took care of that issue for me - "its Europian!" Most of the people around here call it my "manbag". <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

After I got the survival bug, I started loading more and more selected gear into ziplock bags in one of the bag's secondary large pockets - trying to keep it as light and bulk-free as possible. Nobody even knows the gear is there, but its within arm's reach most of the time (except restroom trips and lunches in our cafetria downstairs).

Today I no longer can take the train, and I'm forced to haul around my laptop home at night, but the manbag - or its contents - still comes along where ever I go.