What to Bring: The Tech Gear List

GUEST BLOG POST: Today’s post is brought to you by my darling husband Drew. Normally he can be found online, at drewgilbert.com where he occasionally posts some of his animation projects, but mostly he just talks about Moustache March.

Hello discerning reader. I first want to mention that I am thrilled at how this blog has gone over with most of you thus far. I kind-of-sort-of strong armed her onto this internet space, because I love her writing and way of telling stories, and figured I should not keep that joy to myself, so I like to think I am sharing her journey with all of you.

You’re welcome.

Anyways, The Wife (You know, the one mentioned earlier) was not looking forward to the post regarding our travel gear, so I very foolishly blurted out that I would be willing to be her first guest poster.

I do that. I am a blurter. So deadlines be damned, let’s get to business. Here is a list of some of the more essential gear that we are taking with us on our trip:

Dell XPS M1330

We saved some dinero by buying this sleek sexy number refurbished, and I have to say, I am deeply jealous. It’s super small, perfect for travel, and her 220 gigs of hard drive space alone makes me so jealous I break out in a rash. I have a work laptop that I love dearly, but mine is like the Marmaduke of laptops. It drags the neighbor’s kids around on their wagons, slobbers all over the mail, honestly. I don’t even know what to do with it sometimes.

I’m getting off track though, back to the “good” computer. It comes with a webcam attachment, which will be useful for talking with family back home. In addition to the webcam, we thought it would also be essential to buy:

Skype

For those unfamiliar, this is a great software that allows us to make computer to computer “calls” for free. The pro account is a low monthly rate that will allow us to call actual telephones for a low(ish) per-minute rate. It’s what I personally will be using for those really fun client calls and internal meetings. We will also most likely be taking our cell phones for absolute emergencies, but we haven’t decided that just yet (Psst… I am open to suggestions). Oh, and to make the calls easier, we are also getting a headset:

Plantronics .Audio 50 Headset

Confession time: We haven’t bought this component yet. I don’t expect we will need to spend much, and I pulled this from the Skype site, but to be honest we will probably just pop into Target and get whatever looks like it won’t break in a month. (Again, open to suggestions.)

Sony ICDP620 Digital Voice Recorder

We bought a mini tape player ages ago, which was great when I made an effort to sleepily recount whatever I was dreaming before I woke up, but otherwise wasn’t getting much use. In our Brave New World it seemed like too much of a hassle to figure out how to get the tape to convert digitally into our computer, so this week we dropped some money for this handy little device, which I love so far. At some point I believe we might dip our toes into podcasting, and this device will be essential for “on the road” recounts, interviews and making personal notes. It’s simple to use and easy to get on the computer.

You may have noticed the Photo Essay post from yesterday, and that will continue to be something Christine explores. My opinion was that she has always had a natural eye for photography, and it’s something she was always interested in, so we made an investment in a fine piece of photographic goodness:

Canon EOS 40D 10.1MP Digital SLR Camera

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Standard Zoom Lens for Canon SLR Cameras

These came in a bundle, and we didn’t get the standard lens for the camera, so Christine gets to lug around this monster of a camera until we decide it’s worth buying a less conspicuous lens. It takes fantastic pictures, so expect to see much more photography once we are actually in Madrid (Seriously, Christine? No pressure or anything, but you know, make with the clickity.).

Essential software for any budding Photographer: Photoshop. Honestly, do I need to go into much more detail?

Last and certainly least:

Canon ZR80 MiniDV Camcorder

Honestly, Christine at one point almost had me convinced on buying a sweet prosumer HD Video Camera. Visions of the little Speilberg living inside me swirled in my head. Then I remembered we had this. It’s not lying when it says MINI in the title. It’s very handy and has worked well for us – in the handful of times we have used it. It was a wonderful gift from Christine, the thought being… I’m not remembering now, I am sure there was some promise I made of doing stop-motion animation. The image size is super small, it’s definitely not a pro camera, but I personally don’t expect much in the way of video blogging coming out from us. If, however, it turns out I am wrong, then I will happily shell out some money for the nice camera. For now though, this thing will give us something that will look fine on Youtube, and that’s enough for me.

Okay peanut gallery, let’s hear about your gear. Many of you are seasoned travelers, and I would love to know if I am forgetting anything.