DIY Laptop Case Trick, From the Streets

If you're like me, you sometimes go places. And once in a while you need/want to go there with a laptop computer.

Perhaps you want to seem cool and pretentious at the locally owned organic free-range sustainable indigenous-grown coffee shoppe, or trendy and pretentious at some crummy third-story low-selection over-priced indie record store. Or your grandma's house for tea. Either way, you need a way to get your laptop (slathered with personality-broadcasting stickers) from point A to point B.

And maybe if you're really like me, you don't have a lot of dough to spend on things like clear laptop shells or a separate bag designed specifically for transporting your machinery. What do you do then?

Know what Jack Burton says at a time like this? Jack Burton says, "Do it yerself."

Following is a step-by-step walk through of the DIY Laptop Case Trick, From the Streets. Please refer to it by it's full name whenever teaching and/or being interviewed on this amazing art form born from the harsh environs that is downtown Norfolk.

You will need:
1. Laptop

2. Sweatshirt or zip-up hoodie, with or without awesome local drinking spot endorsements.

3. The ability to tie your shoes.

A flat surface is also handy. Being on planet Earth, this should be readily available.

The sweatshirt or hoodie you select is entirely up to you. As far as I can tell this does not stretch out the clothing item in question, and after sitting in The Mansion for ten hours and fourteen miles of pedaling neither the hoodie or the laptop was affected in anyway.

Step 1.

Put the laptop into the hoodie, just peaking out of the top if you have small clothing or a large laptop. This is so there's enough material on the bottom to fold up and be held down by the sleeves of your receptacle.

If there is a zipper present, zip it up all the way to ensure that no teeth scratch the top of your immaculate white Apple or super-spendy Alienware computer.

Step 2.

Turn the whole thing over like it was a drunken prom date: Gingerly but with the intention of tying it up shortly thereafter.

Fold hood (if present) and bottom material to the center, and secure securely by tying the long sleeves together over the whole affair like a warm & fuzzy Christmas present. If you have the material available, tie it twice just to be sure.

You should now have a cute little personalized package of computer, wrapped in your favorite grown-up version of the security blanket, ready to be placed in your messenger bag, backpack, car seat or bicycle basket. Effectiveness is based off thickness of material and whether or not you put the most padded side where it needs to be.

Voila! Or, as we say on the mean streets of my apartment, shabam! A free, DIY, cruelty-free (are there leather hoodies?), environmentally-aware, individualized laptop protection system.

Use it wisely, my friends. And share the love.

- David