Regarding my hobbies … once I’ve decided I need to have something, it’s very difficult to convince myself not to buy it. It’s an annoying part of my personality … annoying even to myself. Usually, the thing I just need to have ends up being a pretty good purchase because I use the thing often … good examples include (but are not limited to): an iPod, and iPod Shuffle, a film camera (back in the day), a digital camera, all nintendo systems, an x-box 360, disc golf discs, a netbook, a garmin running gps, etc.

And then there are the items which I just have to buy which end up collecting dust until I get rid of them. I currently own a nice wooden chess board, two wooden chess sets and a tournament sized travel chess set … and I almost never play chess against people in the same room as me (although I’m well over 1,000 chess games online). I’ve owned pro grade photography lenses costing over $1000.00, only to sell them after 6 months. I had convinced myself that I needed a Kershaw “Ken Onion” pocket knife which I think I’ve used about twice (looks cool, though). My garmin hiking gps has pretty much been a flop (although geocaching is kind of fun in a nerdy way)

Every once in a while I’m able to talk myself out of things, at least temporarily. Off the top of my head, I’ve wanted a disc golf target, a record player, a car GPS, numerous photography lenses, a telescope, a .22 rifle, and a Calphalon Panini Press.

All this to say that my latest thing is an Alien Bee 22″ Beauty Dish. I really, really want it … but can’t decide which category it’s going to fall into … home run or dud.