Tritium keychains

I realised about 2 years ago that i am absolutely fascinated with all manner of artificial illumination. To date, i still carry a Photon and a Fenix everywhere i go and i STILL think of other ways i can conveniently carry more stuff.

This time though, i think i've nailed another useful item that won't have people whispering about my poor mom and her deranged son....Tritium keychains! These little babies are nothing more than little polycarbonate vials with a hollow core containing a small amount of radioactive material. The slow decay of this gas reacts with the fluorescent material coating the inside of the vial, therefore giving off a soft steady glow that will last 10 years without charging. Now,isn't the fact that you'll be carrying radioactive matter around cool enough for you to buy one? Tritium is safe though because it's known as a 'soft beta emitter' and the particles it emits is the lowest energy of any radioactive material. The gas can't even penetrate the skin .

Not to mention the fact that they're banned for sale in the United States or Canada simply because they're radioactive :D

I've identified 3 prominent brands so far :

• Firefly - produces the Zip Marker (20mm length), Kit Marker (30mm length), Super Kit Marker (40mm)
  
• Nite Glowring - produces (what else) the Glowring (48mm length)
  
• Traser - produces the X2 Glowrings

They don't differ much in terms of brightness (limitation of the technology/chemistry) but as i dig deeper, i think i would favour the Firefly.I've read some reports of the Nite Glowring and Traser breaking or shattering and having radioactive material all over the front of my pants doesn't sound too exciting. This doesn't mean that the Firefly is indestructable either but the fact that it has the Zip Marker (20mm length) means that it won't encumber my set of housekeys at all.

Below :

Firefly Zip Marker Glowring Nite (Blue) Traser Glowring (NOT this bright)

A quick stock take

I'm not taking stock of every gadget i own (though a high concentration is on me almost all the time) but here's what i have in my trusty Pacsafe 200 :

• My wallet (not a gadget...boring)
• a HTC TyTn II handphone ( a little gadgety but getting dated and cranky)
• an Ipod Touch 2G 32GB (multimedia gadget extraordinaire!)
• a Fenix P2D torchlight (uber powerful mini torchlight)
• a black Photon Freedom Micro (still a staple wherever i go)
• A Lenmar solar-panel device charger (more useful than i thought it would be)
• an X-mini 2 speaker (fabulous mini speaker for any portable audio device)
• trusty Casio Exilim Z750 digital camera (a little thick but durable and reliable)
• 3 pens of various nib sizes
• microfiber cleaning cloth for all these stuff

I used to have a Swiss army knife in here but it got lost a while ago. Just need a replacement and perhaps a means of starting a fire and i should be all set.

Why do i lug around all this junk at all times? It's hard to nail the reason down. Maybe it's a neurotic fear of being caught unprepared when some emergency hits, like being stuck in a jammed lift or a flat tire in the middle of nowhere at midnight. Then again, it could be just that guy thing where we look at something and marvel at what it can do even though we might never need to use it.

I hope to be able to continue posting gadget-based insights but sadly, my track record with previous blogs haven't been flawless. Give me a kick now and then please!