Tropophilia

So, in the “Things You Might Not Know About Taylor” category, I’d like to discuss my casual obsession (do those exist?) with gadget blogs. Some people really like diving into the Soduku puzzle in their morning paper, zoning out in front of the Today Show with a bowl of cereal, or flying around their apartment in a flurry of chaotic activity trying to simultaneously shave, shower, dress, and make coffee…all in order to make it out the door 5 minutes late. I used to be the chaotic “mornings are hell” type, but since transitioning to the “real” world I’ve settled into a morning routine that generally includes equal parts NPR, not shaving (the joys of facial hair), and…you guessed it…gadget blog browsing.

Before I go on, I should clarify: I don’t own a lot of gadgets. Of the thousands (and I do mean thousands, but we’ll get to that in a minute) of nerdy, unnecessary, hillarious, and sometimes positively sweet shiny gizmos I view in my morning haze, there aren’t many I could afford or would want to buy. But that’s not even the point. Gadgets represent, in the best and worst ways, the cutting edge of change: little geeky harbingers of what we never thought we would need…but actually might be handy. They appeal to the inner techno-geek inside all of us (everybody has one of those right? no? oh…) that, let’s face it, thinks for just a moment that even the most wildly impractical items would REVOLUTIONIZE our work productivity, household, or even social interactions.

I subscribe to two gadget blogs: Gizmodo and OhGizmo…if you’re wondering, Bloglaw mandates that gadget blogs include “Gizmo” in their titles. You’d think that two measly (I hesitate to use the term for fear that the tech gods will smite me) blogs couldn’t possibly provide enough content for everyday browsing, but that’s the other glorious part about gadget blogs: gadget bloggers are the most prolific writers you’ll ever see. Their jobs descriptions are: “find outrageous pieces of technology/crazy inventions/dorky modifications of existing hardware, add a picture, and write a paragraph of praise, mockery, or a subtle mix of both.” And I love them for it. As a result, I’m in a race I can’t possibly win with my RSS feeds, chipping away at gadget posts that keep coming at me like 13-year-olds to a Playstation (or, let’s face it, 20-somethings to a Wii).

I don’t really expect all of you reading this to pick up a gadget-blog habit, but I think it’s only fair to recognize that what we see on these blogs could easily point to future developments in communications, personal computing, city planning, medicine, and a whole host of other things. Or they could be hillarious, like a cheeseburger in a can.

Now that I’ve outed myself as an enormous nerd, let me ask you (including my co-contributors): any mildly embarassing habits you’d like to share?

Image used under a Creative Commons license courtesy of Flickr user gaspart.