I realized a while back that everyone knows me for my waterbottle, but I dont think anyone appart from my family knows the full history of my water bottles. So I figured I would tell it here. Back in 10th grade I moved from Junior Highschool to Regular Highschool (I know, 9th grade is highschool but arround here it is effectivly still Junior) and one major rule changed between the schools. The no water bottles rule of Junior High was lifted! and we where allowed to bring what ever we wanted for water! HAZAH! 
so I began bringing a gallon gatorade jug with plastic wire handle to school and drinking out of that. You only need to fill those once a day at most, so you can always do it at home. At some point the plastic handle broke off of the bottle and I was forced to get a new one Reinforce with ducktape. I put in a ductape handle running arround the bottle top to bottom and then a second perpendicular strap accross the bottom to keep the first inline with the center. 3 bands of ductape followed up the side of the water bottle to keep the length wise straps from slipping. At that point, the bottle was mostly ductape, so I did a full wrap for asthetic purposes. This bottle did not last as long as you may think. The problem with ductape is that even though it is quite sticky and strong lengthwise, it is incredably week on its shear line (this allows you to rip it easily). Now, you may thing a handle only gets linear forces, but it actually generated quite a bit of shear force and ripped the handle off above the top lateral brace. Efforts to repair the tear worked only marginaly and eventually I was forced to replace the bottle. I cant rember if I ended up loosing the bottle or if I still have it, I may still have it. Either way, I replaced the bottle with a new one.
Learning my lesson from the previous bottle I started out with the same handle, strap, 3 band system that I used the first time, but this time, I layed a skeleton of 100lb test fishing string prior to the ducktape. Followed by a layer of ducktape to hold the string in place naturaly, and an external layer again for astetics. This water bottle held up for quite a while, but I kept leaving it in classes and having to double back for it the next day. (scheduling being what it was in HS, there was NEVER time in the same day to look for it unless I had that class room twice). This proved to be quite a problem, and I devised an ingenous strategy to deal with this. I never, not ever, not even once forgot my backpack in a class room, soooo, I took my ducktape and fishing string and constructed a 7 foot leash for my water bottle. I used a quadroupel loop of string giving the entire leash a 400lb test rating. From there I fassioned a loop in both ends and coated in ductape. A quick application of caribiners later and one end of the loop stayed connected to my shoulder strap on my backpack and the other to the handle of my water at all times. This proved to be most usefull and kept me from losing the bottle again. I may still have this bottle. I would walk down the halls of 11th grade with my bottle on a leash, some times I would "walk it" where I would lift it and let it swing ever few steps like a cane and it would sit on the floor for a bit before being lifted again. But other times, I would just let it drag behind me as I walked. Confident in the knowledge that the ductape would take the abuse. Unfortuantly it did not, and ended up wearing through without me noticing. But it did so in such a way that it stained the plastic underneath ductape color, so I didnt notice untill I was playing with the corner and noticed that it was flaking hard plastic, not ductape. At this point I retired that bottle. The containers structural integraty had gone, and I had already repaired some gaps in the ductape. This combined with the fact that a mold or mildue was building up on the inside of the cap (one that would not wash away) and on the threads of the cap led me to decide to replace the bottle. So one last time I embarked on a ductape water bottle, same design, but this time a new leash, I learned from the previous leash which kept breaking in one particular spot (I think the ducktape was the only thing that broke, but the string may have given way at one point) So I fassioned a new leash out of quadrouple stranded cable and ductape, but this one was longer, and sleaker. paired with a new water handle length this made a bottle I where I could make the leash into a sling and throw it over one shoulder. So I started doing that. I again started loosing waters, I belive I always found them eventually, but there may have been one that got chucked by a janator who thought it was merly trash. And then I graduated Highschool and moved on to college.
I looked at my waterbottle and again it was starting to form mold, so I bought a gallon cooler bottle from the local sporting goods store. This was durring the .22 shortage, and the cashire oppened up the bottle to make sure no one had hidden any .22 ammo in it. Apparently people would do that. Not to steal it, but to "reserve" it for the next day since there was a rationing system going on. No .22 ammo fortunatly. I walked out of the store with a nice new water and strapped my ducktape leash to the handle. I took that to college. 
I also took a small thermos of Hot Cider to my 7:30 calculus class each morning the first semester, so that counts, but it was never a water bottle as such. The bottle held up until the handle snapped off.
At this point, out came the ducktape and the regular harness of 5 strings. Everything was going great until one day when I decited to wash it really good so I put it in the dish washer and one of the ruber seals came out. It shrunk and never quite wanted to fit again. From then on that bottle leaked every time you would take a drink. I sadly had to replace it. Still, it must have lasted 3 semesters. At some point in there I stopped wearing my backpack to school and the strap perminatly became a shoulder strap. One semester, I decited I wanted cold water, but not ICE cold water. 
So I invested in a 3 inch ball of chromium plated steal. It must have weighed 10lb all by its self. I left it in the fridge for a week to chill it down and then threw it in the water bottle. Oh such a mistake. Turns out the chromium plating can wear out and the water turned rusty quickly. Additionaly the weight of the ball and the fact that it would roll arround unpredictably caused me to abandon this tactic completely after one day.
Shortly I found a replacement at a christmas party white elephant gift exchange. One of the gifts was partly wrapped in a similar water bottle, and I held on to it! The seal was better on the new one, but leaked irregularaly too. And I eventually had to replace it. At this point I temporarly moved to using a yeti mug with travel lid and strap, but I was never completely happy with it. When I ended up droppin it and shattering the travel lid I moved back to jugs and invested in a smaller, but still quite large, black jug with spout. That served me for quite some time, but like its prediscessors the seals failed and I had to replace it. I had completely abandoned the ducktape strap at this point, although I do still have it. I very briefly used a giant mug, however, the top didnt seal as such, and the bottom was so small that the bottle would tip its self over on its own, so that was a no go. From there I upgraded to a Sleak Black Under armor bottle with a lid instead of a spout. 
But now here we are. I have moved from Texas to Hawaii. I still have the same large bottle, and I use it any time I have a large trip. I have since invested in an electric pump for the 5 gallon bottle, but I no longer use it since it is difficult to refill on foot, and a room mate of mine turned me on to PUR filtered jugs. Now all the water I drink directly passes through that filter. I have also switched back to using a regular sized waterbottle most days. The big one was just so heavy to carry everywhere by hand. Unfortunatly, the small water bottle is too small and I frequently run out of water part way through the day. I still enjoy heavily iced water and will now dump an ice sphere into my wine glass after a hard day.
Also, I like water in bed. After about 18 months of dealing with tippy watter glasses that fall over at the slightest provication, I found a nice Bottom Weighted glass at wallmart. This is my bed glass now, as even when 100% full, it can not be knocked over by accident.