I'm 50, and I bought myself something!

So, I turned 50. Omaha and I have a rule: I'm not allowed to buy myself anything within a few weeks of any gift-giving holiday. I do that a lot. I do keep an Amazon wish list, but nobody pays attention to that so I only put on it things I'd like, not things I need.

But I decided to buy myself something today anyway. I bought myself a surge suppressor.

Whee.

But it's really a treat. I bought it to replace the one under my bed, a Belkin branded thing which had sucked mightily. The sockets had zero grip; things would just fall out with the slightest provocation. The new one is GE-branded and comes with two USB ports built-in, meaning I now have two chargers freed up for other duties. The space next to my bed is slightly more organized, and my watch, phone and laptop will all be fully charged when I get up in the morning. At least twice in the past year the cat has knocked something loose going under the bed, meaning I woke up to my phone or watch at 25% battery and falling fast.

It's a 1% improvement. That's all it is. A few seconds out of my day that I don't have to waste anymore worrying about whether or not my personal charging station is working. (I do worry the thing is a bit of a vampire, since even when nothing's plugged in or turned on there are two LEDs on it telling me it's working correctly, but the old one had that too.)

But a hundred 1% improvements could end up doing a lot.