Claire took us up to Multnomah Falls today. The "hike" to the view of the falls was... uh... not difficult, and minorly annoyingly occupied by... tourists. Go fig.

When they can dork with you just fine...

Update: Except for that part where he paid for Grace's trip to London at the same time and lied to me about meeting up with her. I had to see her photo of being in London to even catch him. Meanwhile, I was battling the boys while he was "taking time for himself." Yeah. Thanks, Jonathan, for that one.

I wish I could remember who I was talking with when he mentioned Mount Baldy. We were talking about something or other and hiking in Southern California, Mount Wilson was likely in the conversation, too. Definitely something about the San Gabriel Mountains, and a non-zero chance we were talking about skiing in Southern California, since the mountain is the highest peak of the San Gabriel Mountains, as well as the highest point in L.A. (the county).

When we were chatting, there was a slight bit of discomfort in the back of my mind. I couldn't place its source until well after the conversation when I realized that, while I had been talking about Mount Baldy, California, I was really talking about Mount Baldy, Indiana. As in Mount Baldy located in the Dunes.

It's an easy mistake to make, what with one being snow skiing, the other being sand skiing. Both have hiking, too, what with one being actual mountain, the other being rolling sand hills.

The Dunes are one of those backdrops of a life that influence well beyond the time spent there. I hope that living dune stays alive, what with a couple hundred years of people tromping on it, doing their best to kill it slowly.

I think I just spent an hour trying to find my pictures of my trip to the Dunes with Jessica and Gaby. No luck. So, here, have one by Clint that took FOREVER to load.

Last week, Claire asked our group for conference schwag suggestions. "What would be good to receive in a conference bag?" In today's ponder time, I thought about this question.

It's such a great question. So many times I look through a conference bag and just throw away everything in it. What a waste, all of it tossed into the trash. Someone might have thought some of the items worth keeping, but one size never fits all. I shudder thinking of all those pens I tossed away, along with the stress balls and plastic things no one knows that to do with.

To combat this, if I were doing a conference bag, I'd likely do a giant "build your own" conference schwag bag with bins of various things that each conference attendee could pick and choose among, taking the items they* wanted and leaving the ones they* didn't. This leads, of course, to my first requirement when considering what I'd want in a conference bag: "Am I okay taking 100 of these home with me and using them?" If I wouldn't be willing to have a hundred leftovers, and use said left overs, I wouldn't put it in conference bag.

Start with the bag itself. Of course a recycled or cloth bag would be the likely first choice. Really though, if I had the sponsorship, everyone would start with a Pacsafe Venturesafe 15L Daypack. I love this backpack. It is lightweight, fits a 13" laptop in it, has an RFID protection slot for cards, is easy for a small woman or a big guy to carry, has anti-theft protection, and is just perfectly sized.

If I didn't have quite that level of sponsorship, I'd go with an eQpd bag. Made from recycled materials, and rot-proof, the eQpd bag (pronounced "equipped") is easy to carry, great for bulk or awkwardly-sized items, and made in Twisp (which is where Claire and I found them).

Barring that level of sponsorship, I would go with the conference-common cloth bags.

What would I put in it? Again, I'd have a Choose Your Own Adventure conference schwag bag, and these in the bins:

1. Shirts
2. Nice nail clippers - this one sounds weird, but the best bag item I ever had from an ultimate frisbee event was a nice set of nail clippers. I'm partial to the Tweezerman brand at this point.
3. A small, nice bottle opener keychain - most conferences have alcohol, though usually not ones that require a bottle opener. However, I really like the all-metal (not plastic with a metal edge embedded in it) bottle opener keychain I received at a conference. It is attached to my guest key keyring. Really like it.
4. Fidget toys - these are all the rage, but a somewhat good reason.
5. Nice notebooks - Notebooks are hit and miss. I prefer a 6mm-spacing, lightly-printed, lined notebook, but know many people who prefer the a dot grid. I LOVE Muji notebooks, the B5 and B6 sized, lined in particular, and would likely have branded ones at my conference.
6. Wood brain-teaser puzzles
7. Small stickers - can't stand big stickers
8. Maybe a Hat - baseball caps, or a beanie if the conference is in winter.
9. Notecards or cards - something lovely, letterpress maybe, that can be used or given away. With a stamped envelope to encourage light "thinking of you" letter writing. Moleskine has their Messages cards which would be adorable.
10. Seeds for interesting outdoor plants - something easy, toss them outside, and let them go. See the flowers the next spring.
11. Small keychain, medallion, something like a bracelet charm
12. Chopsticks - these could be fun
13. Water bottle - again, sometimes hit, sometimes miss. The advantage of a pick-your-own would be if you have enough water bottles, ignore this bin. The bottle would need to be nice, not plastic.
14. Post-its - with subtle branding, unsure of sizes. I like the tab size ones, I understand I'm odd.
15. Mini spatula - hey, some of us cook
16. Pins - I like 1" round button pins, but recognize the fashion is currently enamel pins.
17. Origami paper with instructions
18. Small pieces of art - YxYY did this its first year, and I love my small piece of art. I still have it, years later.
19. Coin purse - Blue Q has recycled coin purses that I keep using up and having stolen. I really like them. Yep, Abe's a babe.
20. Facial tissues - in a small pack
21. Sunscreen - I'm a fan of the stick kinds.
22. Small pack of colored pencils, pens, markers - for the note takers in the crowd
23. Battery pack - I received one at devObjective 3 years ago and I still use it. Doesn't have to be big. Mine is 3" x 1" x 1". It is light enough and carries enough juice to recharge my phone sufficiently to keep playing Pokémon Go, I mean, make a call home.
24. Gift cards to local establishments
25. Coffee or tea packs
26. Camping spork - I really like the one I received for Christmas 10 years ago.
27. Matchbooks - wooden matches with strike anywhere heads, not a paper matchbook, great for camping or lighting a wood stove.

If I were hosting an outdoor event, I might include:

1. Sunglasses
2. Lip balm
3. Headbands

So, that's my list.

You know what I wouldn't put in my bag?

Overly wordy brochures.

Junk pens.

Stress balls.

Crap products.

If I'm sponsoring an event, I don't want to go cheap on the schwag. I am more likely to ask, "Why?" and toss something poorly made than think, "Hey, what a great sponsorship, let me see what this company does."

DrupalCon had pajama bottoms as schwag one year. THOSE WERE GREAT. I wore mine out. I was a walking f---ing billboard for Drupal in those bottoms.

Gosh, I miss those jammies.

Good schwag.

*Look at me, breaking a lifetime habit of matching pronoun count, ignoring gender, and using "he" for a group of people that contains at least one man, for the singular "they" of colloquial speech. Old dog, new tricks, f--- any unwillingness to adapt, and all that.