I want to BUY STUFF
I’ve been really good so far this year in terms of not buying extraneous stuff. There have been maybe two…three?…things that I’ve gotten, which is way better than I’d been at this point last year
I don’t know if it’s just because I’ve lost all interest in everything and thus even buying new crap doesn’t do it for my dopamine anymore or what, but I haven’t even had the urge to shop much this year.
But it’s still there sometimes, and thus I have my “FUN STUFF I’D LIKE TO BUY” bookmarks folder that I like to scroll through on occasion while trying to keep in mind that I actually don’t need any of these things.
But some of them are cool, so I’ll put them here in case anyone else wants cool things.
Whatev.
- STUDIOCULT earrings. Soda tab, corkscrew, shooting star, binder clip.
- Retro-style Apple shirt.
- I still use an iPod (I don’t think a lot of people do?), even though they no longer have these wheels. Old school.
- Many of the items from this cool store.
- Cute.
- Love the retro look.
- I don’t wear button-down shirts, but I LOVE this idea.
- Flare pants are cool.
- FLARE PANTS ARE COOL.
That is all.
Well, it finally happened.
I had to get new shoes that were not Kinvaras.
I ended up getting the Saucony Ride 17s. They look like this:
(The color is more…minty?…in real life; the picture doesn’t do the color justice. I kinda dig it.)
They definitely feel different than the Kinvaras, even just walking around in them for three minutes or so in Sporting Life. We’ll see how they do out in the wild on Monday.
I’m scared.
Edit: here’s a better picture of them in the sun. I love the color, haha.
I am getting DESPERATE, Saucony…
Can you PLEASE poop out the Kinvara 15s in Canada? I know they’re out in the States, but they’re still not out here. I’ve been a size 8.5 for like six iterations of the Kinvaras now so I’m tempted to just order a pair of 8.5s from the Saucony site, but you know this would be the one time my size would change.
Pleeeeeeeeease, Saucony?
Edit: okay, so desperation has driven me to explore alternative Saucony shoes, and it sounds like the Saucony Ride might be a good option for me (and one that’s not $200+ per pair, haha). Market Mall’s Sporting Life apparently has some in my size, so maybe I’ll just have to try those out unless the Kinvara 15s come out in the next few days.
I really am getting desperate. I have a huge pile of old Kinvara 13s, but they all have 500+ miles on them and I have marathons to run, dawg.
SO SPEAKING OF MALLS…
Let me regale you with an embarrassing moment of mine.
Yes, there are still plenty that I have not yet mentioned in my nearly 19 years of daily blogging.
Sad, huh?
Anyway.
The year was 2000. We had just transitioned into a new millennium. The youngest Gen Z-ers were in preschool. Beanie Babies were beginning to lose the stranglehold they had on the collectible toy market. I was in sixth grade. Malls were still an important part of life and were, arguably, thriving.
Also, the first version of The Sims was released.
I didn’t buy The Sims right when it came out because I didn’t know about it. But a few years later, I had my own laptop, a consistent “allowance” (I put it in quotes because I never actually did anything to earn it, haha) from my dad, and knowledge of this wonderful simulation game that sounded like it was right up my alley.
We also had a Toys ‘R’ Us in the Palouse Mall and I knew that this store carried The Sims. I want to say that the game cost something like $50 (I could be totally wrong about this, though), but I neeeeeeded it so I had to save up some allowance over several weeks before having enough to buy it.
If you think I’m shy and socially awkward now, you should have seen me as a preteen. I got nervous talking to anyone about anything, so imagine how anxiety-producing a monetary transaction was.
But I neeeeeeded The Sims, so one Saturday morning, I worked up the courage to go into Toys ‘R’ Us, grab a copy of the game, and march up to the cashier to pay for it. From the moment I walked into the store, my brain was like get this over with get this over with get this over with, so all I wanted to do was pay and flee. But before I could do so, the cashier took a quick look at the game I’d put on the counter and said, “you know this is the Mac version, right?”
Nope.
Nope, I did not know that.
I hadn’t even thought about that. Again, get this over with get this over with get this over with. I just grabbed the first copy of the game I saw so that I could get out of a situation that, according to my 12-year-old brain, was as life-threatening as getting chased by a polar bear.
But because my 12-year-old brain thought this situation was as life-threatening as getting chased by a polar bear, I still just wanted to get this over with get this over with get this over with. So I just nodded, paid for the game, and fled.
And as you can probably guess, I did not want the Mac version. I had a PC. I needed the PC version. But I was too embarrassed and afraid to be like “oh, oops, I’ll grab the correct copy!” and instead just ended up spending $50 on a VERSION OF THE GAME THAT I COULDN’T EVEN PLAY.
I can’t even be mad at Baby Claudia, though, because Current Claudia would probably still do the same thing.
But yeah. I kept the $50 Mac version (I think I ended up giving it to one of my friends at some point) and lived in my humiliation for several more weeks before I was able to save up enough money to BUY THE GAME AGAIN. I also had to wait until that same cashier wasn’t working so that I could avoid ultimate humiliation.
BEING SHY SURE HAS ITS PERKS, DOESN’T IT
The Last of the Kinvaras (by James Fenimore Cooper)
So that last pair of Kinvara 13s in my size finally came from the Running Room the other day and today was the day to put them on!
OH
MY
GOD
I forgot how GOOD a new pair of 13s felt. It’s like I’m walking on ANGELS’ SOULS.
Saucony, please just bring these back. I promise we won’t be mad.
(The Running Room doesn’t have the 15s yet, but I’m scared of them already, haha.)
Watch This!
It’s finally time to replace my old Garmin. He completely died on me on a run a month or so ago and so I implemented a “three strikes” rule. Three deaths during runs/walks = replacement.
And so after the third strike occurred, I decided to order a newer, slightly fancier Garmin: the Forerunner 165!
This thing has a touch screen, which is pretty wild, and a highly customizable watch face. This is what I currently have, but I’m sure I’ll change it like 200 times.
Hopefully he’ll last a long time!
Obscenely Expensive Luxury Stuff Intrigues Me
Not necessarily in a good way or a bad way. Just…in a woah way. In a “is this seriously what you want to spend your obscene amounts of money on?” way. In a “wouldn’t you rather donate to save animals than have a solid gold iPhone cover?” way. In a “this is such a strange way to display wealth” way.
Like, why in the hell would anyone need/want/care about having a 24K gold tennis racket? I would be embarrassed as hell if someone came in my house and saw this.
And why in the name of CHRIST would you want gold and diamonds on your iPhone? I drop my phone like every four days. Would I want the gold to shatter and little diamonds to scatter everywhere every four days?
It’s the same thing for brand name stuff.
Like…are you out of your mind with this? This looks like something you can buy at Walmart for like $17. What’s that saying…”money can’t buy taste” or something like that?
I don’t get it, man. Does stupid wealth just make you stupid?
Thanks, Apple
It’s going to be really hard not getting the AirPods Max in purple. I’ve been waiting for purple. I was thinking about either the red or the green in the original Maxes, but purple is king.
Idon’tneednewheadphonesIdon’tneednewheadphonesIdon’tneednewheadphonesIdon’tneednewheadphones.
UGH.
LOOK AT THESE FREAKING PANTS
Aren’t they cool? Aren’t they me?
The brand is Lucy & Yak and they have a ton of funky clothing. A lot of it is quite expensive, but these were on sale and in my size so I grabbed them, haha. Can’t wait until they get here and I can rock them!
(Pic from here because I swear I grabbed a screenshot of these from the original website but I have no idea what I did with it, haha).
Let’s Be Buds
So I got some Airpod Pros (AirPods Pros? Airpods Pro? The hell do you pluralize that? Is it already plural?) as a present for myself for getting tenure.
Nobody really cares (including me), but hey…new headphones, right?
I’ve already got them a case to match my “apparently red is now my accent color” scheme.
BYE!
Tag Bag!
My occlupanid bag is here! Check it:
(The color looks dramatically different in those two pics, haha. It’s just the lighting.)
It’s super sturdy and well-made.
You can also grip it from the teeth if you don’t want to sling it over your shoulder with the strap.
It’s so weird and funky. I love it.
PFFT FUCK IT
I bought it, I don’t even care.
It’s so weird and offbeat and totally funky – I HAD to get it.
I’ll show you pics when it comes in the mail.
Because I’m All About the Weird Earrings
So remember Studiocult, that funky jewelry/bag shop I mentioned a while back?
I bought a few of their earrings and they came today.
Observe!
I didn’t know this thing actually had a name, but it’s called the “Cool S” according to Wiki. And now I have earrings in that shape:
Also, freaking OCCLUPANID earrings!
I don’t know why I’m so obsessed with these, but I love them. It’s taking all my will not to get one of their occlupanid bags. If I was at all a purse person, it’d be here already, haha.
Sorry about the picture quality. It’s hard to take a good pic of your ear.
Run, Jacket, Run!
So I broke down and bought one of these jackets from the Running Room a while ago because I’ve seen a lot of Cool People out running in them and I wanted to be a Cool People, too.
I got the “racing red” one, because of course I did.
(I’d get one of those brighter ones, but my running gear gets SO DIRTY SO QUICKLY and I don’t want to run around in a grimy bright green thingy.)
I finally got the chance to wear it on my run the other day and it’s FREAKING GREAT.
It looks like it would be like any other jacket of this material and not breathe at all, but it does. It’s also got mega armpit vents that you can unzip to keep cooler if needed.
The small is really big on me ‘cause I’m short as hell, but it’s still big enough to go over my running pack rather than having to fit underneath it. And the sleeves are nice and long, too, which makes up for the lack of thumb holes.
So if you live in Canada and/or are ever up here looking for a nice running jacket, give this one a try!
AIRPODS TO THE MAX
A few days ago, an AirPods Max review video showed up in my vids on YouTube. So I watched it. This, of course, caused similar review videos to be recommended, so I watched those well.
And I guess I am easily persuaded, because I totally want an AirPods Max now, haha.
Let’s be clear: I am a Sennheiser girlie. I love my Senns. But the only problem with them is that they are not portable. They require an amp and that requires a USB connection to my compy to work. They’re exclusively for use at my desk at home.
But apparently the sound quality of the AirPods Max is really, really good. And they’re wireless and thus portable (though the case apparently looks like a bra?).
Also, noise cancellation. It would be nice to have a really good pair of noise cancelling headphones (I say as my poor Bose QuietComforts sit sadly on my old computer desk, collecting dust and sadness).
Also also, given how much I like my AirPods, I suspect I’d probably really like these as well.
But they are expensive ($780 up here).
And I wouldn’t know if I’d like that weird green they’ve got unless I saw it in person (which I guess I could do – Market Mall has an Apple Store).
And they’re old enough that there are rumors that a second gen might be coming out soon, possibly with more colors (PURPLE?!?!?!?!?), so it may be worth waiting.
I dunno. Maybe I’ll wait until my mom comes up here and we can go have a fun little adventure to the Apple Store and try on headphones together.
WOO!
This sweater!
This thing right here (from Ragged Priest):
UGH.
There’s something about this sweater that reminds me of something…some article of clothing…from my childhood. And I hate that I can’t picture the specific article of clothing.
It’s not the shape of the sweater but rather those dangly fabric pieces. I can’t figure out why and it’s driving me crazy. There’s some memory all crumpled up in the back of my brain that’s trying its hardest to uncrumple and appear clearly, but I can’t get it to.
Mom, do you have any idea what I’m talking about? I don’t know if I had an article of clothing that looked kind of like this or if there’s something with dangly strings that I used to wear as a kid, but I can’t figure it out and I’d really like to, haha.
More Colorware Stuff
Just testing out a few ideas for some colored AirPods (my present to myself if I get tenure).
Any thoughts?
Bling-a-Ding-Ding
Oooh.
So like all of those earrings are fire, but why in the hell am I so into those bread tag bags? Like, I don’t even carry a purse (I use that Kipling bag that my grandma got me like 20 years ago), but the weirdness of those bread tag bags is unparalleled and I love them.
Ugh.
I like a lot of the rings, too, but I’m not a ring person and DAMN those are expensive.
What kind of SCAM…?
The key features are great.
- “Meticulously calibrated magnets in the base mimic the magnetic field of the Earth’s core”
This is why the dinosaurs died out, guys. THEY DIDN’T MAGNETIZE THEIR WATER. - “Multi-functional offering 3 cycles to align with your daily rhythms.”
Is this referring to the three eight-hour cycles of our circadian rhythm? If so, WHY DOES MY WATER NEED TO SYNC WITH THAT? - “Chromotherapy features radiating a choice of colours”
Take it to a rave party! Be the envy of all those fools who didn’t spend $500 on a water vessel. - “Sleek design for a lightweight and ergonomic experience”
Put your H2O in a Nalgene bottle, goddammit! It’s cheaper and has this same feature.
Again, people are weird.
iPad Time!
Guys, I finally got an iPad!
Here is my swag bag:
I got an iPad Air (in purple), a Magic Keyboard, and an Apple Pencil.
Here it is all set up:
I’m super excited! This will be good for meetings and for helping students if I ever do those Engineering Calculus courses again.
Plus, it’s cool.
Woo!
I have acquired THINGS!
OBSERVE!
I guess technically I got these books yesterday, but today we went to Fleet Feet in Coeur d’Alene and I got new shoes plus some energy GUs that I’m going to try on my longer runs (especially as I build up to the 37-mile ultra next year).
WOO!
BOOSHATHON
If I get tenure next year, I think I’m going to get myself a Coloware item as a celebration present.
AirPods Pro, maybe.
It’d be hard to pick the colors, haha. I might have to get some of their sample colors to see what they really look like in person.
Touch
I am a very tactile person. I love touching things and feeling different textures (I can’t go through a store and not touch stuff; I’ve always been that way).
So these look pretty cool.
I’d love to get a few and stick them to various items in my office that I touch a lot!
Stress Mode ACTIVATED
That means I want to buy stuff.
That’s dangerous.
Eigenblogger 