Early 2006, my guy Dave and I come up with this theory. I’m all about theories. Absolutely love them. So here’s the set up:
We’re all hanging out in my boys Phil and Dave’s room. And we’re watching television or checking stuff out online or whatever it was that we did back then when my boy Phil goes “Hey Zac. Have you seen my powerball?” Pause. Raise an eyebrow. “What the crap’s a powerball?” Phil rolls open the drawer of his desk and takes out this plastic ball thing, gives it a flick with his thumb, starts spinning it, and the thing lights up. “Holy crap! That’s awesome!”
Now a technical description, because I have people here wondering what the hell I’m talking about. As I’m sure you’ve figured out, this powerball is a little different from the powerball where you pick 6 numbers and hope to win millions of dollars, but it’s almost as good. Maybe even better. The powerball is a gyroscope powered device commonly used by athletes to exercise one’s forearm, wrist, and/or grip. Spinning the device causes the gyroscope inside the ball to spin and create force. I’m a little fuzzy on how gyroscopes work exactly, but I know spinning them is awesome. In any case, you can get these with counters that measure how fast the gyroscope is spinning and such or with LEDs. Phil had red LEDs.
Within hours, Dave and I are online trying to buy our own. Prices are something like 25 bucks for a normal one, 35 for either LEDs or the odometer dealy, or 45 for the combo. So what’s the decision here? Well, LEDs are just fancy lights, there’s no real practical use for it other than to know that the powerball is spinning (I neglected to mention that there are no batteries - the LEDs are powered by the gyroscope and no, I don’t understand how) which is pretty obvious if you’re using it. The odometer’s kinda cool. We can “race” with it and actually get a figure on if we’re improving. But… 10 bucks for some gimmicky add-ons… Hmmm… What to do… whattodo…
I think it’s pretty obvious: Buy the ones with the lights!! So what’s the theory behind this?
EVERYTHING is better with lights.
Let’s face it, things that light up unnecessarily are just straight up cool. Pens with lights rock my world. No USB device is complete if it doesn’t light up. Laser pointers blow the minds out of any household pet. Street cars with neon lights are kicking [and illegal for bonus points]. Anything and everthing can be improved with lights. Maybe not necessarily lights, but anything that creates a glow effect. I say that because glow-in-the-dark things don’t technically have lights, but they’re kickass nonetheless. Why else would Asian glow be so trendy now?
If you still don’t believe the theory, I think you need to check this site out:
I don’t usually trust people that think the letter “x” is cool unless it’s in “X-Men,” but this site amazes me. Light up shot glasses. You want a set. 2 bucks a pop shipped. Yeah, buy them now. How’s all this stuff so outrageously cheap [mini 200x zoom microscope WITH light for under 30 bucks shipped]? Well, it’s based in Hong Kong, so expect poor craftsmanship [read: bootlegging]. Whatever though, if your light up pen breaks down you’re only out a dollar, boohoo. Also, be sure to check out the LED powerball for under 9 bucks shipped.
Quick story before closing this up. Shipping is apparently about 2 weeks via Hong Kong Post. I’m not 100 percent on this, but a while ago I imported something from China on eBay and it may have been shipped HKP. I actually had it delivered to my apartment within the week. Here’s the kicker: The delivery man was totally an illegal immigrant that couldn’t speak English. I swear, that guy just got off the boat to hand deliver my package. Keep in mind, I’m in the mid-west, boats don’t get here that easily. So if that’s standard service from HKP, try not to think of it as shipping and handling, think of it more as a fee for a good laugh.
March 6, 2007 at 4:50 am
When 1 of my old work was trying to get stuff to China, we had to find “shipping companies” to come and pick up the item, and get it to China, find some poor guy to relay it to some other random poor guy, through dangerous terrain, just so the package could be delivered to the right guy. It was um, interesting….
and even more interesting getting a package sent back to us..
but then I am still in LA.. you are in Michigan.. that’s just.. crazy
March 8, 2007 at 11:19 pm
And that is why they need to make a PS3 with glowing lights.
March 8, 2007 at 11:21 pm
Damn, I forgot to add: We’re awesome.