Barnstorming on an Invisible Segway

I got invited to a metrosexual party, so I brought double chocolate stout since what's more metrosexual than chocolate beer? (Possible the fruit beers, but the chocolate was cheaper.)

For what doesn't this work? Hmm. I think it always has a chance of being made of win, but there's some areas it might be more ill-advised--major appliances, cars, children's picture books.

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Would I rather have teriyaki grasshoppers than a particular brand of potato chips I know to be terrible? Actually I think so. Yes.

Would I predict you, specifically, to react the same way? Heh. Probably not.

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p-j-cleary.livejournal.com

Clothes. Going for what's weird is either just putting something to take up room in someone's closet or making them wear something that will result in embarassment.

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Children's picture books are supposed to be weird! Children's picture books thrive on weird!

There is a cat wearing a hat. For more than the few seconds it takes him to tear the hat off and kill the monkeys. That's very strange and suspect.

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I think it works better as a hostess gift (or at least that's how I was reading the comment, mostly) than as an approach to life.

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Buying clothes for other people is a dicey proposition at best. But you're right, "get the strangest thing in the store," probably won't do.

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Also, how did you know it was a metrosexual party? Was it just that you recognized the people involved as metrosexuals, or was it on the invitations?

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cloudscudding.livejournal.com

Wouldn't work: clothes, electronics or items required to be functional in a specific way--so for some electronics, weird is good, but for, say, an MP3 player, weird is bad.

Aside from that, I now have a new gift-purchasing algorithm. Yay!

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akirlu.livejournal.com

I'm thinking this might be an unfortunate thing to do when buying perfume. Or buying a gift for the sort of person who will feel obligated to keep and display your gift, no matter how much they secretly hate it. (Unless of course you're seeking to torture the recipient, but that doesn't seem like a Mrissish tactic.)

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Well, see, that's a good weird. but there are also bad weird kids books. Usually more like stupid and pointless and such, but sometimes, they're just bad.

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Perhaps what the real criteria is, is a price tag and/or need for research. For example, if I am buying a 5 dollar electronic device, it could probably be as weird as it wants, so long as it looks like it won't die immediately. If I am buying a $400 stereo, I probably want to actually find something good.

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"For what things does this not work?"

Pharmaecuticals.

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Also military weaponry.

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callunav.livejournal.com

I do this a lot, especially with comestibles. I've had some colossal failures, but also some surprising successes, and even the failures have led to entertainment. I think it would be different if I were the host and responsible for supplying the mainstays of a gathering, but usually I'm a guest bringing a contribution, and it's worked out pretty well. That, I think, says a good deal more about the people I hang out with than about the generalizable principle, but I do think that among geeks this works pretty well.

I agree with the many comments above about clothes.

I think the underlying principle may be size/duration. Weird things that may not be too good which will be gone before the evening is over = viable. Weird things which just keep going = a burden. That goes for clothes, which have a long duration. I think it also means that at least for me, short books - thin humor things or wacky phrase-books, or, yes, children's picture books - but not full-length novels. I don't know that many people who are going to stick with a 300-page thing they're not sure they like at all, just for its weirdness value. It'll just sit around, while they decide whether they've had it long enough that they're allowed to throw it away, yet. Similarly, ornamental objects succeed on this principle directly proportionately to size and value: a strange wind-up toy can be a win, but an expensive and bizarre and bulky set of windchimes from Tanzania, less so. That's a different aspect, but one which I see as analogous to duration.

It's the same way that one may be willing to watch a half-hour episode of something bizarre and not necessarily very engaging, and may even find it a source for conversation, but a 2 hour movie with the same qualities is just an imposition.

...I think I had more permutations to offer, but my brain turned off. Whoops.

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Mineral rights.

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It was the title of the party. My brother inherited my dad's weird party gene (dad sample one (http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/marsh/own_page/welcome_back.htm), dad sample two (http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/marsh/own_page/gracious_education.htm) vs my brother's holiday card (http://www.nathanielmarsh.com/wordpress/?p=128)) We've had Metrosexual, Uptown/bottom shelf (a two story extravaganza of class and crass), the Kidding Around/BYOBG party (Bring your Own Baby Goat). This latest party has no theme yet, other than 8/8/8.

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Generalization: any medical treatment.

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And lab test equipment.

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Also political consultants.

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athenais.livejournal.com

You never buy me mineral rights anymore. Where did our love go wrong?

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Probably consultants of any kind.

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Therapists. (Does this fall under "any medical treatment," above?)

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It's all about radio spectrum bands, baby. (I don't know which ones are good, so I'm buying you the weird ones. We're going to convince drivers to trail 30 meter cables behind them so they can receive our 30 b.p.s. ELF radio broadcasts.)

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