You want to watch out with that chalk-circle thing. Bomb squads have been increasingly impatient with unattended luggage, and they tend to make their opinion explosively clear (as in, they explode the luggage first and ask questions later).

A better strategy is the one that mothers share with their children: ask someone if they can watch it for a while, and asking a mom with kids is probably your safest bet.

The ethical implications of this are troubling, of course.

At the coffee shop I normally go to, there are a couple guys who come in time to time to watch animé on their laptops. They periodically go across the street to get something to eat and ask a random person to watch their stuff. One of them explained it to me as: “I figure if somebody asks or offers to watch your stuff, it’s not too safe. But if you’re the one who asks them, they feel responsible”.

I offer no financial guarantee that this will work, but it has worked out for them so far.

Oh, and buying spices in bulk is okay - but get them unground and grind them in a (used only for spices) coffee grinder. If you get a bulk container of ground spices, by the time you are done, they are flavorless… or possibly flavourless, depending on if you watch the sun rise or set on the Atlantic.

I’m not sure I understand the effectiveness of drawing a chalk line around your luggage. Can anyone explain how this would prevent anyone from stealing it or inserting anything into it?

Thanks for the link, I had quite a laugh :)

The ask “someone to watch it” has been quite effective for me too, but I would never leave my laptop unattended.

Heh. Yeah, I know what you all mean about the suitcase in a circle. I liked it more as a piece of cultural theater—the ways you can emulate “specialness” and authority in public spaces. (see also)

I would advise against asking a mother with children to watch your stuff. (Especially in a place like an airport.) Although they may be more trustworthy, they probably have enough to keep an eye on with their kids and all, but would probably say yes anyway just to be nice.

Can you tell I am a mother with children or what? :)

Save old drink/water bottles, clean them all out and fill them full of water. Then use them to fill the empty space in your fridge/freezer. This does two things. One makes your fridge run much more efficiently, cooling air is very inefficient as it doesn’t hold the temperature. Two gives you a large supply of fresh water in a disaster.

The “circle around it” phenomena is a thing a british magician did in a trick where he sets a wallet down with money in it and its still there a day later.

It looks offical, so people don’t take it.

And get a SEPARATE coffee grinder for the spices. The spices ruin coffee and vice versa.

Michae - yep. That’s why I said “used only for spices”. Although running some things through the coffee one lends a edge to your next batch of ground coffee.

Chalk circle? In addition to everything else I carry, I have to carry CHALK now? Where? In my pants pocket? In my laptop bag? Tryin’ to turn me into Powdery Jim the Math Professor.

That tip is retarded.

When I read the chalk circle thing, I thought “crime scene” and took it as a joke.

I can add to this:

When riding my bike to/around campus on rainy days, I keep the seat (which is foam/cloth, not leather) covered with just any old plasic bag. This way I don’t have to sit in puddle the rest of the day.

Also, I collect plastic bags in a drawer to bring back to the grocery with me or to use for all sorts of things.

A better tip than this, and something I should get around to doing: go out and buy some canvas bags and put them in your trunk so that you don’t have to worry about using plastic/paper, and they won’t rip! I’ve heard that almost everyone does this in other countries, but it never really took off large-scale in the US.

All of these are well known, I’m sure, but I know I’m guilty of not thinking of simple things like this all the time.

It’s a commonly known fact that drawing a circle around an object in a public space draws attention to it, as if it is on display. For instance, in experiments, a wallet was left in the middle of the street with a yellow chalk circle drawn around it. No one picked it up, despite hundred of pedestrians passing by and actually looking down at it. Reason? Because the circle implied the object was consciously LEFT there and being watched/surveyed. It is definitely a nice trick and it really does work, but how many people walk around with chalk in their pockets?

Math professors, I’d say.

Don’t miss Anil Dash’s real-world advice for dropped kitchen wrap.

Also, given the amount of luggage stolen in places where “implied watching” is hypothetically at its very highest — airport security checkpoints — I’m somewhat doubtful of the chalk trick.

Growing up the son of a math professor, I’d say they usually have chalk dust around their pockets, or whereever they put their hands they’re not writing on the board, but I’ve never known a math professor to actually put a piece of chalk in his or her pocket.

Then again, the last college building I was in, the classrooms all had whiteboards instead of chalkboards…

My, God, you people are like freakin’ Rain Man.

Put black tape over the part of your screen that mentions chalk, and just keep reading. Jeez. :)

Oh great, now I’ve got tape residue on my display. I’m sending you the bill, Mann. :)

A friend of mine added this when I told him about the chalk/luggage - trick: If you have to park your car someplace that is utterly forbidden (like a doorway for example) just leave the trunk wide open.

Maybe that only works in Europe though… :-)

Cigar boxes are handy for keeping shotgun shells.

The Old Man never locked the doors of his pickup truck, so when he made a stop at the liquor store or the race track and didn’t want to lug his Hasselblad 500c he’d leave the camera on the seat in a brown paper bag with the top rolled down.

It’s a corollary to “never own anything worth stealing.”

The other half of what to do when you drop something is Listen Carefully. If you drop something small, like the essential spring out of a toy or gizmo, your ears will usually tell you more reliably than your eyes where it went.

When I get a new parka, I put the old one in my trunk. If I get stranded somewhere cold, or just caught by unexpected weather, it’s right at hand. Likewise if someone else with me had less foresight (like those who take a 100+ mile trip in January in their shirtsleeves… sigh).

Also, I like to keep a sleeping bag (preferably a warm one, but not necessarily expensive) in the car. If I break down in a rural area, I can keep warm until someone finds me. Especially if I’m already bundled up, and/or use the old parka.

These are things I’m likely to have and store, anyway. Why not keep them in the car, then, as a bit of added insurance?

Everyday tips

Weblog 43 Folders picks out good posts out of a recent thread at MonkeyFilter discussing “Everyday tips:” To kill off weeds between bricks or in the cobblestones on your street, mix half-and-half white vinegar and cheap dish detergent and squirt…

Everyday tips

Weblog 43 Folders picks good posts out of a recent thread at MonkeyFilter discussing “Everyday tips:” To kill off weeds between bricks or in the cobblestones on your street, mix half-and-half white vinegar and cheap dish detergent and squirt it…

de los trucos de la vida

a la gente le gusta dar consejos. bueno, no a toda la gente, a otra gente le gusta callarse. dig?moslo de otra forma: “a la gente a la que le gusta dar consejos, le gusta dar consejos” (mi peque?o epigrama…

Easy laundry pre-sorting

Among the tips in a recent 43folders excerpt of “Everyday tips from MonkeyFilter” was one that recommends pre-sorting laundry as …