Introduction

I am not stranger to gear. When feeling inspired, I actually write for a couple different publications. One is an on-line format, and the other a printed magazine. Not to mention of the gobs of gear I have horded for my own personal use :)

Most gear is hobby related. Outdoors, hiking, camping, cooking, motorcycles, guitars, photo, video, you name it. Much of that stuff though, is a big old money pit of trying to find happiness. Without getting too indepth on that topic, I mean a couple things by that statement.

One is that getting something new like that is great, at first. You do your research, are proud you have found the perfect product or perfect solution. You buy it, and it brings you great joy. You change your short term behavior to go out of your way to use it, only to find that after a period of time, you are back to your daily life and you have another piece of accumulated gear somewhere. It made your life no more happy that it was before you bought it, you are just short some more money now :)

My second take on gear hording is the substituion for real life experiences. It seems that our culture has changed into one that works more, and plays less. We seem to have less free time than we used to.  It only makes sense then that we daydream about stuff we “think” we would like to be doing and spend money on those things. When I bought my third road motorcycle (as opposed to a dirt bike) I wasn’t saying to myself “I want to do my daily commute of five miles one way back and forth to work, through crappy city strees on a two wheeled adventure bike.” No way!! I was saying, “I want to get the heck away from work, have an open road experience and adventure somewhere else, and spend some time with my beautiful wife (who also rides).” The reality is that communting on my bike is 90% of what it gets used for. Funny how we perceive the future, isn’t it? But, it isn’t entirely our fault. Sometimes our brain plays tricks on us. Something I discovered in Daniel Gilbert’s book, Stumbling on Happiness.

I said not too deep, right? Sorry about the detour. Let’s get back on course, and try to figure out where I am going with all this. I love to write, but I have to be excited about the topic. I would never make it as a writter with “assigned” topics :) I also don’t want to write about the random thoughts bouncing around in my head because honestly, who the heck would want to read about that? Not only do I have to find something interesting to write about, but I also have to pick something that people would want to read.

Easy, right? Stuff. Everyone loves stuff. As I contemplated which hobby I was going to pick on to be my subject, I quickly felt my drive for the project diminshing because I know that none of them are my true source of happiness. Sure, I would keep it for a couple weeks, and then I would lose interest. I could see that coming before I started :) Instead, I tried to look around at the stuff I use every day, or nearly everyday that has been so ingrained with my lifestyle that I know it is not going to be a passing fad, and go away. Some of the things may be usual, but I am guessing many are not. I guess you will just have to stick around and see.

I do have to admit to having a big longer range goal here in mind to. I have been doing product evaluations for quite some time. Again, that is with hobby related items in general. Once I get a good deal of writing in on the products that I currently own, I am hoping that this venture is successful enough to be able to do evaluations on stuff that I do not own, but with the same principle in mind. It must be daily, or near daily use stuff. Not the latest cool Condor machete that drums up vision of adventure in the Amazon :) Even though I love those too!

I have one final warning regarding my reviews. They are brutally honest. Most reviews seem to follow a very canned script. First, they start by quoting all the manufacturers specs. Then, they go on rehash all the selling features that marketing has already come up with. Finally, it is all puppies and ice cream regarding the product. I assume this is either because they have to kiss ass to the manufacturer that gave them the product for review, or they have to feel good about spending their money on their new toy and are trying to convince themselves that they were justified in buying it.

 My reviews just tell the good bad and the ugly. If something is great, I will tell you why I think it is great. If it is not, likewise. I just won’t say that something sucks, I will tell you why I personally think it is not cool :) I am sure I have made a lot of manufacturers mad, but oh well.  I figure the point of a good review is to inform perspective customers of what they are really going to get, not to make anyone particularly happy.