I Void Warranties

I want this shirt. I like to make my own things, and fix that which breaks. NPR has an interview with Mr. Jalopy. The interview is really rather interesting. There's an artist, Nemo Gould, who says

A lot of average suburban men would have a metal lathe in their garage. That's something you can't even conceive of today. But it was sort of common. ... 'Oh, well, if my lawn mower breaks, I'll want to fix it, won't I?'

That's the kinda guy I want to be.

Mr. Jalopy is part of the Maker movement. Basically people who want to feel like they actually *own* their own stuff. Do you really own something that you can't take apart and fix, upgrade, or modify? Or are you just renting the thing? Mr. Jalopy feels that the ability to perform such actions on the things you purchase is what really defines ownership. I think I'd have to agree.

Take the example of my car. It's a 1995 Nissan Maxima. Not so recently, the key I had broke off in the lock. And since the key doesn't work in the passenger door (for some strange reason) my only option was to leave my doors unlocked so I could actually get back in it. Or pay some extreme price to have the door fixed. Since I wasn't too fond of that option, I decided to take the trim off and see if I could fix it myself. I had to do a lot of work on it, but with very little problems, I was able to take the door off and figure out how to fix it.

Not because of the inherent design, but because I've had quite a bit of experience now with making repairs I'm not supposed to.

Actually, I'd like that shirt better as a hat, so I could wear it when I'm voiding warranties.