(OT) Adulthood Survival Kit

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

My little brother is heading off for his freshman year of college at San Diego State at the end of August. As a send-off gift, I am putting together what I have dubbed the "Adulthood Survival Kit". The idea is to supply him with all the little doo-dads one needs in college and the rest of his life. Small things you don't know you need until you are without them.

So far I have:
A Leatherman multitool (on the way from Amazon)
A refillable cigarette lighter
An all-canned-food cookbook (he's not much of a cook)
A nice cloth laundry bag
Some condoms
A can of chili and a couple bags of Top Ramen so he doesn't starve
A roll of duct tape

And the whole shebang is in a 500-round ammo box, which is handy for carrying around anything.

Anyone have some more ideas for items to throw in the kit? I'm over budget as is, so it shouldn't be anything too expensive. I'm pretty sure our mom has the whole plates/cups/cookware thing covered, too.

So after moving out, what did you smack yourself in the head and say, "That's what I forgot I needed!"

 

[arwink]

Duct Tape

 

[thalmin]

A package of Band-Aids.

edit>A can-opener?

 

[Sixchan]

Tweezers

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Just some advice ....

* Don't date anybody in your own dorm for at least the first semester.

* Avoid scheduling classes before 10 or after 4. You're going to end up skipping them anyway.

* Flash cards. My grades went up a full point when I started using flash cards. Even the humanities courses which are supposed to be based on reason and impressions still have a lot of raw memorization on the tests.

* If he showers, washes his clothes, gets SOME kind of regular exercise, and cleans his dorm room once a month, he'll be doing more than 99% of the other guys and he'll score so much ... um ... well ... Eric's Grandmother probably wouldn't want me to continue. But let's just say it'd help his social life.

 

[Bagpuss]

Caffine Tablets - Helps with the Monday morning lectures or weekend long parties.
Headache tablets - recommend paracetomol based as they are okay with alcohol, buy a small packet as you don't want to try and OD on paracetomol as it just destroys your liver leading to a slow death by blood poisoning.
Indesgestion tablets.
Super Noodles (or US equivalent, instant meal just add boiling water)
Does the Leatherman have a corkscrew? You need a corkscrew.
Good can opener (use leatherman only in emergencies).
Pregnacy testing kit (might remind him to use the condoms!)
Coffee mug with his name on.
Post-it notes.
Pens, and pencils.
Stamps to send letters home or a phonecard (do people still use them).
Padlock (so he can lock the box or his locker or any number of things)
Handcuffs (I found them useful when I was at Uni)
Earplugs (save his hearing when he goes out clubbing I cannot express how useful these are.)
A 4 or 6 pack of his favourite chocolate bars.
Washing power tablets (idiot proof washing).
Those plastic clasps for closing bags of chips (fries) or vegatables in the freezer.
Wooden spoon.
Bottle of Lea and Perrin Worcester sauce (can you get it in the US?) everything tastes better with a bit of this.

Sure I've missed something....

 

[Thresher]

One of those big D-Cell maglights, see in the dark, beat people to death with it, many uses...

 

[Amrynn Moonshadow]

some packs of gum (there's this one in canada by trident which is all citrusy like, great, high level of fructose, only thing that kept me awake / alive / not staving around the end of semesters)

a good knife (for all sort of social activities)

pain killers

extra batteries (D, AA, AAA)

rubber bands

extra shoelace laces

card of emergency phone numbers (mom/dad home, at work, siblings, friends, relatives who live in the area, lawyer, doctor, insurance guy, trusty DM...). clear scotch tape this to the inside lid of the box.

an extra pencil and an extra pen. also make sure they are in there just in case.

 

[Nifft]

Excedrin
Flashlight (Maglite D-Cell is a good one)
Battery-Operated Radio
Bong
Box of Cliff Bars
4 Shot Glasses
Post-It Notes
Impressionist Posters (every dorm room needs two)
Sparklers
Glow-in-the-Dark d20

-- Nifft, swerving towards the "on-topic" tree

 

[Sixchan]

Those plastic clasps for closing bags of chips (fries) or vegatables in the freezer.

...Clothes pegs?