EDC vs TO&E

Every Day Carry and Tactical Ordinance and Equipment. These are the terms that people in military culture use to call "Purse" and "Handbag" because it isn't macho enough to call it that. It's like how every single thing is given a callsign. It's normal to have a model number for something so that it is easy to keep track of it, but to actually give everything a callsign and then give it a short military-esque descriptive...sigh.

Examples: a semi-automatic high velocity fabric stitcher = sewing machine, an aerodynamic friction enabled contained liquid dispenser = ballpen

I know that some people do it for fun, but some people are really into it. "It's not a doll! It's an action figure." I mean respect and all, because I admit, I am a military geek too. But never forget those that you stand on that wall for, that is the thin line between patriotism and tyranny.

Anyway, I bring this up because I spent roughly half a day trying to streamline my TO&E this is the stuff I bring in my bag everyday when I am on assignment. I sorta realized, after so many people have told me, that I do bring a lot of stuff in my bag. I just tell them "Hey! When the (zombie, nuclear, alien, demonic, medical) apocalypse comes, you go find your own needle. Don't go borrowing mine because I won't lend it to you." Because believe it or not, that's what I have in my bag among others.

I base what I bring depending on scarcity of resources in case something happens. Haven't you watched Evil Dead? How about Lost on TV? How did they survive longer? Because one of them had knives. So simple a tool, and I have to agree with CutleryLover on this, aside from fire, a sharp implement is the reason why we have all of civilization. Yes! You are reading this blog because Barok had a spear and a torch.

Anyway. I broke down what I brought and didn't bring and found to my dismay that instead of reducing what I usually bring, I ended up adding to it after checking some new references on survival. The good news is that I got rid of a few redundancies in my pack, and finally managed to create a "legal friendly" EDC line-up and have upgraded and downgraded some other stuff to where they ought to be.

I'm still trying to find a way to legally bring a bazooka and a holy longsword +4. Not that I have either, but I like to plan ahead.