Even though I feel like I am revisiting Clocks on Appliances and Throw Pillows, I can't sit idly by while the mash-up of these two inventions continue to circulate the globe and get a free pass. I am talking, folks, about the pen that has a flash-light built into it.
Inventing for invention's sake.
The pen is a fantastic invention. It allows us to record our thoughts, data, or any other information that might be too important to rely on memory alone (I am lousy when it comes to remembering where a piece of paper, I had written important information on, is... but that's my cross to bear). The flash-light is also a great invention. It provides light when there is only darkness. But... Who is the f*cking genius that thought it would be a good idea to combine an invention that requires light to use, with an invention that is only useful in the dark? Hold on now, it would be great if the flashlight was mounted so you can write in the dark... But no, the flashlight is on the top side of the pen. So it doesn't even solve the problem of pens being useless in the dark!
Not to mention, these are the two inventions that are the hardest to find when you do need them. Really, when someone asks if you have a pen, is your answer usually: "Oh, I have one right here"? No! You say: I've got one somewhere, all the while rummaging through a ton of sh*t you haven't seen in ages with the faintest memory of a pen being there! When the power goes out, is there ever a time when you say: I know where the flashlight with fully-charged batteries is! NO!! So why combine the f*cking two!
Final Analysis.
I love capitalism and the free-market. But this lazy wannabe invention crap has got to end. Let's stop ruining perfectly good inventions by strapping another equally important yet completely irrelevant invention to them. I imagine twenty years from now I'll be writing about the convertible airplane, or lawn sprinklers with cup-holders... yeah, that's the world we live in.
