Handkerchief Mar 31, 2009
Hey listen, buddy.  I know you think you're being discrete and polite by blowing your nose into your reusable handkerchief, but let's get one thing straight:  It's disgusting.  You can't possibly think you're being even remotely health conscious, can you?  I mean not only are your snots all over this cloth, but now your pocket is full of snots too, which means every time you put your hand in your pocket, you're getting more snots on your hand.  God forbid you shake anyone's hand or, hell, even touch a doorknob.  Because although you might feel fine today, you're spreading your disgusting nose goblin snot germs all over the place, all the while thinking you're conserving tissues and being civilized. 

If you use handkerchiefs, you support terrorism. #health
Dream gadget revisited Mar 31, 2009
A few years ago I wrote that I'd like a GPS-enabled camera-phone-ipod-gaming-system to satisfy all my gadget needs in one device.  The more I think about it and experience various attempts at such, the less I like my idea.  The problem with all-in-one devices is that they do everything, but they don't do anything well.  A great example is my current smartphone/PDA/whatever-you-want-to-call-it.  It's a phone with a camera and a mini computer, which means it can also play music and store lots of information.  The thing is, it really only does about two of those things well.  The camera is dismal, and the music-playing capability was essentially an afterthought.  I guess these things will get better as technology matures.  It's just hard to get past the fact that single-purpose devices like iPods and digital cameras do one thing very well, but when combined with other devices tend to get much worse. #technology
Wedding ring Mar 31, 2009
I've never been a fan of gold jewelry, so I knew I wanted a silver-colored wedding band when I got married.  A few months before the wedding, I went to a jewelry store and was appalled and disgusted at the price of platinum rings (I honestly can't justify spending tons of money on a metallic material whose price is artificially determined by the people who decide to mine it -- it's that whole problem with price vs. value).  I wasn't all that impressed by white gold because it's soft, or titanium because it's too lightweight.  Plus, I heard that if a titanium ring gets stuck on your finger, they have to cut off your finger because the material is too hard to cut (this turned out to be false, but it's still fun to think about).  I instead went with stainless steel, which was both cheap and heavy.  Heavy enough that if I punched a person, it would leave a dent in their forehead.  Something about that idea resonated with me, so I bought it.  I went to a different jewelry store just to see if they had a better selection or better prices, but when I asked the sales guy if they had any stainless steel rings, he said, "What, you mean like I used to build my deck?"  Something about his tone made me want to try out my new ring's dent-producing capabilities. 

The one problem with stainless steel, as with many jewelry metals, is that it's soft enough to get scratched.  This isn't that much of an issue, especially since I'm a guy, and especially since my ring is made of stainless steel.  It would be worse if it was shiny and pretty.  But either way, I kept my eyes open for something different, and I recently found what I was looking for:  Tungsten carbide.  Not only it is more dense than stainless steel (and hence, heavier), it's also harder (even harder than titanium), so it doesn't get scratched.  Now I can leave dents in people's foreheads while keeping the symbol of my marriage free from scuffs.  Double win! #products