I’ve seen a trend on websites like Lifehacker and Flickr where people show off the contents of their bag. Their bag is unloaded and the items are methodically laid out for others to review. (personally, I think 90% of this is designed to show off their Mac toys…)

I’ve decided to play along and show off what is currently in my bag, see below:

A quick review of the inventory (from right to left):

• A banjo – I can really only play one song, which my mom doesn’t like because it sounds depressing. I have always felt this was quite a feat – to play a depressing song on a banjo.
• The Complete Book of Breastfeeding – I currently don’t breastfeed, but if I ever start I’m fairly sure that if I suddenly start it will come as such a shock that I’ll require the use of a manual.
• Canned Pumpkin Pie Filling – This is good to get gum out of hair.
• Roomba – for quick carpet cleaning, as required.
• My super-cool iBook. I know you’re jealous. It’s a vintage 1998 model.
• A stud finder – for the joke that never gets old (where I hold the stud finder up to my chest and say “beeeeeep”).
• Prestone De-Icer – obviously for hair styling.
• My universally despised, yet oh so comfortable fur-lined crocs. I’m a slave to fashion.
• Ulysses by James Joyce – for light reading on the toilet.

I’m just glad this wasn’t around when I was in school. It just would have been one more thing that I felt like I was missing out on.

By the way, don’t you love it when technology parents don’t understand meets irrational media-fed fears? As if the kind of kids who are sending naked pictures of themselves would be in bible studies if it weren’t for cell phones. These were the same kids sending naughty messages via telegraph.

I really think that I could start a rumor that satanic drug gangs are using Facebook to get kids hooked on meth as part of an initiation ceremony via subliminal messages left in rock music. I just need to find a way to also involve Obama’s secret birthplace & muslim heritage, gluten-free diets and the do-not call registry. I am open for any ideas you may have.

This site has a very useful page that let’s you analyze your Netflix history. I’ve been a big netflix fan for a long, long time. I’ve had a membership on and off for years now. I remember when I was first a member back in 1999 or 2000 you had to mail your DVDs to San Francisco, so it took forever to transfer them back and forth. So I ran a pretty recent batch of data into the analyzer and it gave me this data:

NetFlix History Analyzer

Analyze your Netflix DVD rental history and determine how much you’ve been paying per DVD, compare it to what you would have paid somewhere else, and compute your savings.

Your results

You’ve rented 62 DVDs over 38 months from December 19, 2005 to February 16, 2009.
Your plan costs $14.99/month so you’ve paid $569.62 total.
Your average price per rental was approximately $9.19 each.
Average rental costs elsewhere are $3.75 each (not including late fees).
You’ve overpaid approximately $337.12 over that time period or $8.87 per month.
Here’s some more about your renting habits…

You kept each rental for around 29 days on average.
The longest you kept a single DVD was 194 days: .
You rented about 2 DVDs each month.
You’re not taking full advantage of your current plan. You could be renting 13 DVDs each month.

Ouch. It really seems that we have wasted a lot of money on Netflix. I feel a lot better about putting the subscription on hold last week.

In case you’re wondering – the movie we kept the longest was Terms of Endearment, we eventually did watch it. The movie with the fastest turn-around time was Redbelt. The best movie I have ever rented from Netflix: The Last King of Scotland or The Queen.

Exhibit A:

Man, I’m really hoping we get the beer coozie. My beers always get lukewarm when I’m at the NASCAR track.

P.S. – This is just trying to be funny. Evie and I aren’t having another baby anytime soon.