Item Number 36: ComputerLand Duffel Bag

Time in possession: Roundabouts 16 years.

Description: Black duffel bag, featuring logos for the long-since defunct company ComputerLand. The zippers and detailing is done in the worst early 90s indigo imaginable, but make the bag pretty visible off of airport conveyor belts. At this point the bag is broken at several points- The main compartment in particular has a broken zipper and a Velcro latch that is hanging on by a thread. Well used, you know?

Cost: This was a freebie given to my dad when he worked there and then later appropriated by me, so let's call it a $1.99 Value Village special.

Story: Material possessions for many people are tangible signs of their progression, through adulthood, through the ranks of status, whatever. This bag, to me, was a sign of my growing older and a tangible sign of my own personal owning of property. When I went travelling (with my family most of the time- I was 8 when I first started using it!) this was my bag and in it went my things. I packed it, I kept track of what I had in it and carried it to and from the places I went. My bag, my belongings, my status symbol of maturity and responsibility.

Plus, having never played hockey, it was the closest thing that I've ever had to a hockey bag and I always thought that they were cool.

This bag has been all over with me. It's been all around North America, and to Scotland at least once. In addition to clothes it has held beer, video game systems, RPG crap, Halloween costume props and once, a puppy. At this point it is in dire need of replacement, but it works well enough for it's semi-retired duties, and really, there are so many memories with this bag it's hard to let go. I get the impression that it will probably fall apart at the seams before I decide to trash it, and if that's the case, then it will be with me a long while still.

Item Number 33: "The Grudge 2" Baseball Cap

Time in possession: Around 5 months

Description: Black baseball cap with Velcro adjustable headband. Sports a the title of "The Grudge 2". Probably the lamest thing I've ever owned.

Cost: Free with the purchase of some issues of Knights of the Dinner table from Morgana Games. The only price I would have paid for such a thing.

Story: I have a problem that is not uncommon. I cannot say no to free stuff. The problem that arises is that it usually takes me years to finally rid myself of the various crap that I've accumulated with is more than enough time for embarassing situations to come forth. Now, granted, the situations arn't usually amazingly embarrasing (i.e. "No, I only have that dog on midget porn because it was free, uh I mean, not mine, I mean, I'm holding for a friend, I mean, enemy, I mean I stopped it from killing a baby. Yeah. That's the ticket.") but really nobody wants to have to take the time out of their life to explain why they have a "The Grudge 2" hat, even if the explanation is "it was free with some other stuff".

Now, to be fair to the poor hat, it's not completely devoid of any worth. It covers my head adequately and it's comfortable enough. I just don't really think I can condone pimping bad movies. I mean, it's not even a really bad movie, so if I was trying to wear it as an ironic statement, it would be so borderline that people wouldn't even know if you were serious or not. It would be like when somebody makes a cancer joke and then you're not sure if they have cancer or something and nobody really talks for a while and everybody just looks around and wonders how they can start a new conversation without looking like a total asshole. Yeah, that sucks.

So, this hat will probably stick around for a while, probably to be held on to until I give it away to someone whose sense of fashion or irony or thrift exceeds (or is drastically worse, your pick) my own. Until that day, it will remain amongst my other hats, waiting on that day, possibly picking off my other hardware until I have nothing else to wear but it, forcing me into many a social faux-pas. Damn you hat, your evil existence is the bane to my life!

This post really didn't have anything to do with anything. I think it gets a brand new label, "rants". Done and done.