Friday, March 23, 2007

Boomsticks: Cognitive dissonance.

I once had a friend who was trying to grow out her own fingernails and keep them neatly manicured. Problem was, they were (like mine) brittle, and constantly splintering against some impediment of daily life. This would trigger a rant on how product designers just didn't take people's manicures into account when designing all the knobs, switches, handles, and buttons we encounter in our modern technological lives. (Insert obligatory feminist statement that the whole Patriarchal point of long fingernails, an Oriental import, is that the lady who has them obviously doesn't need to do anything with her hands. Sort of the digital equivalent of bound feet.)

So anyway, today I'm futzing around with Project Whisper, checking for feeding issues from a full mag, and as I went to give the charging handle a brisk cycle, I felt that awful tearing sensation from my left index finger as the nail encountered the GG&G sling loop, letting me know that it was going to be time to look for a nail trimmer and a file. Before I could stop myself, my subconscious launched into "$#^%&# designers! Never taking long fingernails into account!"

I just now stopped laughing at myself long enough to type...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Tam,
Brittle nails is a symptom of a missing dietary item, IIRC. Can't recall what, though, sorry.

Anonymous said...

Don't know what's in them, but pre-natal vitamins will not only strengthen your nails but also make your hair grow faster.

Brass

Anonymous said...

If you don't mind losing the fully-closed position on the collapsible stock, the Tango Down sling adaptor doesn't have those nail-ripping bits and works really well ambi besides
.
http://tangodown.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=40

Firehand said...

When I was playing guitar a lot, I tried to keep the nails on my right hand a bit long for picking; and every time I started grinding or polishing a knife blade, sections of them would go away.

Lots less painful then tearing them, but still a pain.