Ridiculous Opinions #276
Things I like!
I sit here this morning with absolutely nothing to say. I’m a bit tired because I worked at a festival last night (and have to work again tonight), so things are busy. So in lieu of complaining about the coup that has happened in the United States or the weather, I will simply list things that I like. Okay? Okay!
My Lapdesk - If you don’t have a lapdesk, you’re missing out. Sure, it’s kind of stupid to espouse the virtues of a lapdesk on a newsletter, and I will probably lose about fifty more subscribers because this is a waste of their time, but who cares?
I bought this lapdesk about three years ago. It’s from a company called "Yogibo”. They make furniture and the like. Think beanbags. Anyway, this thing follows me around the house like my cats looking to get fed follow me from my bed to the bathroom in the morning. As you can see, I have decorated my lapdesk with stickers that I’ve been acquiring over the years. Eventually, I’m going to lacquer over the stickers so they are more permanent, because with all the use that my desk gets, they start to fade/tear after a little while. I like items like this and I like decorating them so that they become a part of my DNA. As I have espoused for a while, I look forward to a world where we have more physical things and less digital things.
Our works of art! The Paintings of Jon Denhartigh - I worked with Jon in Bangladesh from 2014-2016. He was our high school art teacher and if ever I have met a true artiste, Jon was the guy. We bought these paintings from him around that time and they have hung on our wall ever since. Sometimes, art just speaks to you and Jon’s work here spoke to both Tracey and I when we first saw it. We always felt that the two birds on the right were us and the two birds on the left were Harper and Abbey. We’ve even arranged the pictures so that Tracey and I are always looking over Harper and Abbey. I don’t have much contact with Jon anymore, but hopefully, he’s experiencing a cold, sinking feeling knowing that someone, somewhere, is talking about him!
Check out this awesomeness! My Backpack - I got this backpack about five years ago from a company called Waterfield, based out of San Francisco.
Waaaaay back in 2008, I bought my first Waterfield bag, which was a leather muzetto bag that looked like Indiana Jones’ satchel. They no longer make it, but it looks similar to this.
Here’s a picture that shows me with my glorious bag, while offering an excuse to show my beautiful daughter and simultaneously embarrassing her by uploading a photo online. I love the muzetto I have so much. After all of these years, the bag is still going strong and one of my most cherished items. The leather now has that glorious patina of use that all bags should have and every summer it is slung over my shoulder for day-to-day travel. I experimented with backpacks from Waterfield over the years, looking for the right one, and eventually settled on one very similar to this.
But the bag had some zipper problems. Waterfield, being the great company they were, repaired the zipper each time. Eventually, they offered a replacement bag for free, which was the bag that you see above. Aside from the zipper problem with the previous bag, these things are indestructible. They’re expensive bags, but I will have mine forever. Very much worth your time.
Oh, look! There’s my bag again, living it up in Japan! And look at that awesome sweatshirt! I look like a MODEL! So stylish! My Vollebak Sweatshirt - See that sweatshirt? That’s my “100-Year Sweatshirt” from Vollebak. It’s supposed to last 100 years, and three years in, it seems to be doing pretty well.
I’m sure I have told you before that, if I could, I would wear the same clothes every single day. What you see me wearing above is what I would like to wear all the time, though society (and weather) has a tendency to wreak havoc on my plans. Anyway, I paid a lot of money for that sweatshirt and I love it. Three years in, it’s still as soft and wearable as it was the day I got it. I will never buy another sweatshirt again, and I hope that I will be wearing this sweatshirt during my final days, as I take my old-man medication that I keep in that Waterfield bag strapped over my shoulder. Alternatively, when we suffer the zombie apocalypse and all of you are dressed in rags because of your support of fast, unsustainable fashion, I will be decked out in all the right gear, the majority of which will be immune to zombie bites. IMPENETRABLE CLOTHING!
All right, that was all boring. But I have to keep doing this newsletter as a routine, because if I get OUT of that routine, then I start to grow soft. I don’t want that to happen! I’m sure most of you probably think I’m absolutely insane at this point, and I wouldn’t fault you if you did.
However, even if only ONE of you learn from my examples above and purchase your own items because they bring you joy, then I have done some semblance of good in the world.
Because buying things really is the true road to happiness.
And remember, ladies and gentlemen, these wise words of wisdom that someone wrote in a comment on Reddit in response to one of my comics:
Wise words, folks. Wise words.
