Genuine nerd

"I'm a genuine party nerd" as Toby calls himself in American Splendor. I am the owner of a Casio G-Shock watch - chunky, black, digital.

That's another pitfall of HK, spending money. I've been carefully researching things that will make my travel life easier and one was getting a less flashy watch (other than my Rolexy looking one) which also had a vibrating alarm. So scouring through websites, reading reviews (if you ever want to buy a watch, check out http://www.watchreport.com/) and then taking the plunge.

It's a flashback to primary school when so and so's dad went to Singapore and brought him/her back a digital watch with calculator on it. Seemed the ultimate to me at the time and when I finally bought one little did I know I was inching one step closer to social suicide. lol

But if you're thinking of sleeping with earplugs and wanting to wake up at some stage (other than have a sonic boom alarm) a vibration setting seemed most obvious. We have them on our phones, why not on watches. And when I'm on hikes I can loosen the strap, or count how long we've taken so far, or have silent alerts to myself for whatever justifiable reason I can muster.

I actually tried it out last night. Set the vibration alert to 3:50am (not eccentric at all) and woke up with a start. I used the illumination function, "Ah yes, 3:50". It was like someone invisible had shook me awake. I smiled a big Cheshire grin to myself and went back to my self-congratulatory dreams.

Go the Japanese! G-Shock, you rock.