MussoLOLen is Always Right! |

Before you scroll down to read the rest of this entry, let me give you a backgrounder of myself so that you can understand why my sentiments about Timbuk2’s Blogger Bag are such. I am the kind of person who makes drafts of her blog entries in a notebook. Not a notebook like a portable computer (aka laptop) but the one that you write on with a pen. (Does anyone else still know what a pen is these days?) Any gadget with more than two buttons sends me to fits of panic, not unlike the way natives of aboriginal tribes freaked out when they were first confronted with a camera. The most hip electronic thing I own is a 2-year old iPod nano that’s well on its way to the grave. The only time I will ever get a laptop is when my mom buys a new Macbook and tosses her old one at me, as though she were getting rid of table scraps by feeding them to a starving mutt.

In short, my technologically-impaired nature makes me fail to understand why people would want to blow ridiculous amounts of money on gadgets, and then spend more money swaddling their electronics in the gadget world’s equivalent of designer baby clothes.

Mamá and myself at the Blogger bag launch

Despite these thoughts, I tried to attend the Timbuk2’s launch of the Blogger bag at Outback Restaurant with an open mind. I remember someone telling me about the existence of a Blogger bag sometime April and I think I might have responded with an impolite WTF? It’s not like bloggers have needs that are entirely different from that of a non-blogger. Seriously – all we do is sit on our asses and work those fingers. What the hell would we need a specialized bag for?

It was later explained that the Blogger bag was designed by a blogger for bloggers. The exterior of the thing is made out of ballistic nylon – you know, the self-regenerative material used on flak jackets in World War 2 – and its interior is lined with corduroy. Yes, we are a generation so enslaved to our gadgets that we need to coat them in corduroy despite the fact that they (the gadgets) are not programmed to give you a kiss for placing them in new, scratch-proof environments. Okay, maybe the corduroy lining I can understand – nothing makes electronics look so 1999 than scratch marks. But ballistic nylon? I was so torn between thinking, “That’s so awesome!” and “What the hell for?”

Let’s admit it. We bloggers are a bunch of spoiled wussies. I mean, my companions and I couldn’t even finish the Kiko Caravan trip last summer – and even that involved us sitting on our asses while we got driven from province to province. We don’t need shrapnel-proof, cut-proof containers because a blogger would never find himself or herself in a war zone, giving minute-to-minute updates whilst his surroundings explode in a clouds of smoke and dust. Even with shrapnel-proof, tear-resistant bags, I bet bloggers wouldn’t so much as think about approaching a war-torn country with electronics in tow. Hell, if I had a 80k-peso Macbook, I’d be more concerned about making sure it doesn’t get so much as nicked than saving my life.

Free food, yayz!

The point is, giving talks and attending PR events are the only other blog-related things that bloggers do aside from blogging. And unless there is a knife-wielding maniac invited to these events for the purpose of giving expensive laptop bags a purpose, I don’t see why any blogger would need to carry their laptops in atomic-bomb-proof bags.

I’m not saying that the Blogger Bag is a sucky product. I know I’d have bought one right then and there if I were a gadgets person, but I’m not. I don’t even own a friggin’ laptop. However, if it came in pink-and-purple girly designs and with that incredibly cute guy from Timbuk2 in “just add water” form somewhere in its pockets, hell yes I’d shell out the cash for it – laptop or no. Plus, I bet I’d get ten thousand cool points if I had a bag with an exterior that regenerates itself when slashed open. I’d bring it with me to parties and pester all the guests with, “HAHA! My bag is more awesomer than yours. Look what it can do!” *slash* *regenerate* *applause* Hmmm, come to think of it, I could actually use this thing to sucker guys into dating me. “Oh yeah? You don’t believe that my bag can repair itself when I rip it open? I’ll bet you a night out with me that it can!”

Blogger bag: potential guy magnet? *alerts Cosmopolitan magazine*

Like a lot of things being pimped out to the Gadget Generation (e.g. Colorware customized iPhones) I think the Blogger Bag is utterly expensive (five thousand pesos, Jesus!) and completely unnecessary. Not to mention incorrectly named, seeing as journalists might be able to benefit more from its durability and gadget-safety features than bloggers. Unless it does something really unusual, like cure cancer or churn out ideas for blog entries, I wouldn’t buy a Blogger bag. Nope, definitely not for me.

*long pause*

I’m still invited to the Mrs. Fields event, right? Right???