Editor’s Note: After Flipboard’s CEO Mike McCue was featured in Gear Patrol sharing his essential items, his employee D Creemer was asked to do the same. Ultimately his submission was not published due to a strike by the thesaurus staff. That article is presented here.1
Flipboard employee D Creemer is a lazy man. His day runs from 8 AM to 9 PM, and in that time he barely manages to get his one high-school kid out the door, ride a motorcycle 8 minutes to work, work, make it home after dinner which he often skips anyway, and then barely keeps up on email before falling asleep on the couch until his kindle hits him in the face.
“There’s no rhyme or reason to my gear selection. Sometimes I buy whatever the hell is staring me in the face, sometimes I research like crazy before spending $3 on an app,” he says, and that mentality is reflected in the gear used in his daily life.
Micro Four-Thirds System (Especially Olympus)
This one he researched the crap out of. The Micro-Four/Thirds System is possibly the worst-named, most capable camera system available. The mirror-less interchangeable lens cameras have a sensor large enough for excellent pictures, but small enough to support not-too-big lenses. The Olympus OM-D and PEN Cameras are his favorite. Want a rangefinder like Mike’s Leica-M? Go for the PEN-F with a prime lens. Want a DSLR-like a Nikon? Grab the OM-D with a superzoom. Feeling funky? Mix & match.
Levis 501 Original Fit Jeans (Blue)
These pants accompany Creemer in his daily routine, as well as on weekend naps. They’re perfect for California weather (and gold-mining), as well as for the streets of New York, Moscow, and pretty much everywhere you can buy a $3.50 latte.
Tom Bihn Synaps 25 Backpack
After a few hours of searching, Creemer found the Tom Binh Synapse 25 Backpack. It’s a backpack. Oh and it’s waterproof, because they’re from Seattle and it rains there 391 days a year.
Emacs
GNU Emacs is Creemer’s note taking app of choice. It also does twitter, programming, email, has fun colors, and is written in LISP, which rocks. Also, Org-Mode’s table editing is the shit. He only switches to VI for 125,000 line YAML files.
2015 MacBook Pro 13in Retina Display
AKA the last great MacBook. “This is where I spend a vast majority of my time,” Creemer says. Apple screwed the pooch after that. He barely logs into ucbvax anymore.
Suzuki V-Strom 650
Creemer’s motorcycle is prized about as much as his other possessions, which are just things, and don’t define the essence of our true selves. The Suzuki V-Strom has a horrible name but can pretty much do anything from dirt to highways. The “V” is for the engine cylinder “V” configuration. And the “Strom” is for, um, Strom Thurmond (unverified).
Casio Wave Ceptor Watches
“I am a watch guy,” says Creemer, who seems to choose wonderful products with bafflingly horrible names. The Casio Wave Ceptor Atomic Solar Watch never needs setting, and never needs charging. “I can take a weekend trip without thinking ‘crap I forgot to bring my watch charger’,” he says. He mostly uses it to tell time, because it’s a watch.
Trader Joe’s Instant Coffee
For a person so lazy, Creemer eats too much. When it’s time for a coffee break, he reaches for Trader Joe’s Instant Coffee. Why spend $3.50 a cup, when instant is mostly inoffensive and delivers the caffeine as well as Peet’s?
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Not Really. ↩︎