It’s a bad sign, isn’t it? Tonight, I was trying to catch the 6:22 train to New Brunswick, but when I arrived at Newark Penn Station, it was a mess. The platforms were crowded, and almost every train was delayed 30-60 mins. Amtrak was running, but nothing else coming from New York Penn. It took me over an hour to finally get on a train heading southbound, and I finally reached home at 8:20pm. 

I read later on the news that there was a disabled train in the tunnel that blocked the rest of the trains coming out of New York. FML, man. Who needs this crap after a long day at work?

Newark Penn train status

The days of carrying a broken laptop bag are over — my new bag came in, and I’m very surprised. Yes, surprised, and I’ll explain why. I priced it out at eBags.com, Walmart.com, and Amazon, but they all varying delivery dates in the 6-18 day time frame. Amazon.com itself stated I could pre-order the bag, but I thought that was a little weird. I eventually ordered from Adorama Camera, an Amazon.com Marketplace seller with decent pricing and shipping fees. All the sellers offered expedited shipping but it was getting to more than $25 in shipping, so I thought I would slum it with regular shipping. I placed the order on Wed, and it was at the house two days later on Friday. Shipping timelines are so weird, but I’m pretty impressed with how quickly Adorama turned the order around. That was damn fast. One of my friends mentioned that he has also ordered from Adorama and had good experiences with that merchant.

The STM bag is decent enough, but it’s much like my recent replacement wallet. It doesn’t hold a lot, which is not at all that I wanted, but I suppose it’s good enough. This is precisely why I find it difficult to divine the true sense of a bag’s qualities when looking online at some posted photos. User reviews help, but still, it’s a crapshoot. The replacement wallet I bought last year is slim (I call it “my sexy wallet”) doesn’t hold as much as my old wallet, but slimmer is nicer. It’s forced me to carry less. I suppose the same rules will apply with this new laptop bag. I’ll be forced to carry less junk around, and there are certainly pros and cons associated. For now, it’s nice to commute with my hands free again.

My new bag