u/TheAluminumRowlet

I get criticized a lot for choosing to wear boots in the ED. But after over a year with this pair, I would like to plead my case.

I'm an overnight ER tech, I work 4 or 5 12 hour shifts a week, every week, and have done it all in this very pair of boots, my Timberland Pro Boondocks. (Not sponsored).

Rubberized toe cup, black leather, nonslip soles, boa cables, composite safety toe.

Im on my feet the entire night, and they are just plane confortable, even with just the stock inserts they are confortable.

The black leather is not only easy to maintain with polish but also awesome for bodily fluids. Things don't stick, and if it does, I'm one purple wipe away from clean. They look dirty now because I'm at the end of my work week and haven't polished them up again yet, but when I do, they look brand new.

The nonslip soles are amazing around the department, water spill, vomit, pooled blood, not a problem, march on.

I know they make easy clean work shoes that will do this stuff too, but here is why I chose the boots.

The high sided ankle support has saved me on multiple occasions. The number of times I've had to side step somthing or someone is astounding. I have week ankles, I always have. I'm extremely prone to rolling them. But not with these, the side of the boot literally don't let me roll my ankle, they give amazing support. They also give good awesome coverage. Get swiped by someone's bed going down the hall? No ankle scrape. Round a corner too fast and catch your foot on somthing, no roll, no ankle scrape.

But my favorite part, my absolute favorite part, the safety toe.

But why do you need a safety toe in the ED? I hear you ask.

Because im getting hit by shit all the time!

Mobile x-ray machines, ekg machines, ultrasound, code carts. People sling these things around like they stole them! Number of times I would have been hurt at this point having my toes run over greatly out weighs the cost for the boots.

I've used these toe cups to prop open doors, push furniture across the room, chock the wheels on wheelchairs with broken locks, saved my toes repeatedly with people scrambling around the trauma room durring codes.

We had a code in a CT room once, after I swap out on compressions my other tech was too short to do compression on the table, and we didn't have a stool. Know what she used? My boots! While I was catching my breath, she stood on my safety toes and did compressions. (We got him back btw)

And the end of my day, after getting my soles run off all day. I just pop the boa locks, pull the toung forward and i fall right out of them, don't even need to pull the body.

Are they perfect? No, they're clunky, and they weigh quite a bit more than tennis shoes, but I genuinely find the utility if them a fair trade off.

My pair of Ariat Overdrive XTR are dead after 2 gentle years. I got them when worked at my last job at a feed and farm equipment store, right before I left to work at the hospital. Daily wore them for about 2 months before I changed jobs, then they became the boots I wore to worl on the truck, do yard work, wood work, just stuff around the house.

I wore them last week to work on my car, when I was finished, I couldn't get them off my foot! The inner lining around the heel separated completely and got caught around my foot. No matter the angle, or how hard i pulled, they just wouldnt come off, the lining would invert and stay sucked around my heal. I ended up having to use my trama sheers to cut myself out of them.

R.i.p to my yard boots, and hello to my soon to be home made yard shoes when i cut the necks off lmao.

Hey guys, I wanted to show off my project!

I've been playing dnd since 2019, I've been dming since 2020.

I always had an issue bringing all my stuff with me. For a while I used a shoulder bag but it broke. Then I moved on to a backpack, and I just wasn't happy with having to dig through my bag for eveything, and over time the papers inside would curl from the bag being slung around, even with harder bodied folders.

So I built this!

Its build out of an old Samsonite 007 briefcase I got at an estate sale.

The clear part of the tubes in the case lid I got on Amazon as some kind of candy holder. Had a guy I work with at the hospital 3d print me the black end caps, one side is solid and press fits on, the other is actually a threaded cap. Each capsule holds a full set of standard sized dice. I was maximize space to hold 18 sets (3x6), unfortunately I own 24 sets of dice, 2 of which are oversized so I did end up having to pick and choose what I wanted to take with me regularly.

The body of the case is where I think I really shined though.

It holds:

Notebook for scratch paper

A folder of character sheets

A 15in portable type c monitor

A Lenovo Gen 1 T14s

A folding keyboard

A low profile mouse

A 65w charging brick

Cables to charge the laptop and plug in the monitor

And a folding 3d printed dice tower

Not pictured but still fits:

A ruler up at the top with the folder

Pens and pencils that fit in the dice tower slot since it's so deep.

The laptop is one i just had lying around, i bought a variety of thinkpads for parts from a local school IT team. It's keyboard is shot on the motherboard side. Keyboard itself is fine, already replaced it with a new on actually, but it has zero response. I think its water damage, the board had some sticky staining on it when I had the machine torn down. That's why I got the folding keyboard. I got the laptop for dirt cheap, so its a small thing to overcome to have the convenience of a laptop that is ONLY for dnd. It lives in the brifecase full time. I just keep all my dnd related files on my Google drive. Let's me work on my campaigns anywhere any time and not have to worry about which machine it's on. Long term I want to get into self hosting cloud storage, but the price to do it is just a bit too much for me to spend right now (I've got all the hardware needed alrewdy, I just need to save up for the drives).

Each layer of foam is .5in thick, and I hand cut each layer to hold everything in the body. It holds it all nice and snug. Nothing comes loose in transport, no matter how much i swing it around or shake it.

I also hand cut the lid foam.

I got the foam from a site that specializes in guncase inserts, they have a diy tab where you can buy the foam by the inch.

I have access to a low power laser cnc machine, so I might do a version 2 of this where I cut the foam out on that to get cleaner and more precise lines, but first I would need to see how the foam reacts go the laser, and then i would have to learn CAD. Xp

This whole thing is actually a Mk2 of the first time I tried it about 2 years ago. I'll throw those pictures in at the end. For the first attempt I used a solid piece of foam instead of layers, and it was far too soft for the application. The tubes kind fit standard dice, but they got stuck a lot. I never even got around to the body foam, I just threw eveything in there loose.

For a while I thought about putting in led lights around the lip of the lid and put in a cabinent door switch so they would turn on and illuminate the case when i opened the lid. Kinda make it glow like the briefcase from Pulp Fiction. Ultimayly decided I didn't want my case glowing ridiculously bright whenever I opened it, may still try it out one day though.

All In all, after I had bought all my test items and finally got the time to try again, the total cost of materials used was ~$515 usd, but that's counting the laptop, mouse, charger, cables, keyboard, dice tower, and the monitor. For just the case, it was closer to ~$235 usd.

If you read it all the way through, thank you for your interest in my project! I spent alot of time thinking and planning this out between Mk1 and Mk2. If you have any ideas or suggestions I would love to hear it. I would also love to answer any questions!