A shameless flaunting of Stuff that I Own

Ok. I admit it. I'm a capitalist. Not only that, I'm an avid capitalist. I was a capitalist when I was poor, and I'm a capitalist now that I'm middle class. I'll be a capitalist when I'm rich, too. Communism is for people with no ego (and who are a lot more altruistic than I), which is fine, but I'll hold onto mine for a while, thanks.

The fact of the matter is that I like Stuff; I'm desperately materialistic. Sure, I enjoy the mental and non-concrete physical pleasures, but I won't deny that my physical self is a large part of my existance and that Stuff is a big part of that. As a child, I would collect rubbish from the road. Mostly heavy, shiny stuff. To this day, I like heavy metallic, shiny objects, of all shapes and sizes, and have been known to carry small ingots of silver around with me. British Pounds (the money) make great doodads.

This page is the intro to my shrine to Stuff. In contains mostly expensive Stuff, but don't let that fool you. I like inexpensive stuff, too. The expensive Stuff is just more flashy, and you don't want to see pictures of my pen du jour, anyway.

• My Swords. I study Iaido, which appears to be a hobby only slightly less expensive than Chucking Lumps of Gold Into The Ocean. I'm the proud owner of a new pair of swords, and, gosh, are they pretty.

• Our newest car, a Honda Civic Hybrid. This is the most expensive Stuff I own, and it also is owned by the bank. My other car, which used to be expensive Stuff but which is now Paid-For Stuff, is owned by myself. To tell the truth, owning the Stuff isn't much different from the bank owning the Stuff, but it's nice not to have to pay the bank for the other car.

• My favorite car. This is the second most expensive Stuff I own. It is really owned by me, not the bank.

• I don't own this stuff anymore, but I still have pictures. Our house on Rimfire Road in Bend, Oregon.