...it's also where the Scrabble set can be found in it's native habitat...of course, if you're like me...you now take your Scrabble everywhere you go, courtesy of the Words With Friends app on your iPhone (it's like nerdy crack, I tell you).

Home, however, is where you can wrack your brains over what to do with the Z, Q, and R in person...be relatively sure that you're adversary isn't looking their words up online...and recline against a set of these thematically correct HOME cushions...

Is it a bad sign when you contemplate buying a new piece of technology purely on the basis of the impractical housing that you found for said n.p.o.t.? Scratch that question...amend it to "How bad a sign is it when...?"

Yet, here I sit, pondering an iPad...or, more specifically, the DODOcase which would cover it. Made using traditional book binding techniques it embraces the techie/luddite mix that I'm so partial to...while, at the same time, enabling me to look like I'm actually reading a book and not watching a classic episode of Scooby Doo or playing video games. Perfect for potentially embarrassing moments when you're killing time but don't want everyone to know what you're doing (voice of experience talking...I was once identified by a hitherto unknown client as "the girl who was watching cartoons at Dulles International airport").

There's your general, low-level, geekiness...and then there's the level of geek where you find yourself getting way too excited by the prospect of being able to color-code all of the black cables in your bag. I blame it on the fact that almost every cable I use comes in basic black...which is great if you're looking for a dress...but irritating beyond belief when you want to hook up your external hard-drive but can't figure out which cable you need...

The only issue...well, the main one in my mind...with making upgrades to the technology in your life...is the almost instantaneous urge that accompanies said purchase to make additional purchases to accessorize it. Which means that right about the time I was bidding a (long overdue) farewell to my pay-as-you-go cell phone...and a big hello-and-how-did-I-manage-for-so-long-without-you? to my new iPhone...I was mentally cataloging all my new "needs". At the top of which was, not unnaturally, a case. Cynic that I am, I usually assume that these quests will be time-consuming...surprisingly, I not only found something at the first site I visited but the case itself is decorated with Eley Kishimoto's classic Flash print and will therefore match (in a dazzlingly eye-boggling manner) my laptop bag.

There are all manner of Elvis impersonators out there...young Elvis...old Elvis...fat Elvis...and thin. There's Elvis after one too many Fried Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwiches...and Elvis gyrating his hips like he hasn't a care in the world and only has to worry about the occasional bout of cliff diving or dancing with Ann Margret.

And then there's MacElvis. Not, as you might imagine, a slightly dodgy Scottish cabaret act...rather, one of a collection of coifs and facial follicles designed to give your Apple laptop a little something extra. Potential hairstyles include 'The Designer'...'The Creepy Uncle'...and 'The I Just Slept With Your Girl"...while the area which would be designated as upper lip, were we not discussing a glowing cutout apple, can be embellished with 'El Conquistador'...'The Wise Tentacles of Dr Mooch'...or 'The Badge of Honour'.

As you've probably guessed by now, I went with the classic...'The Big King'.

Or...how to waste a perfectly good Saturday...

The Angry Birds iPhone app...

And a young, drunk, Oliver Reed playing a young, drunk, psychopath in Hammer House of Horror's Paranoiac (alongside Janette Scott who, as those of you who are Rocky Horror Picture Show fans will know, fought a "Triffid that spits poison and kills")...

You also cannot fit a 15" laptop into a 13" laptop sleeve...a rather basic fact that failed to permeate my subconscious until I was casting loving (and rather nerdy) glances at my new MacBook Pro. Somewhat belatedly I realized that I had absolutely no way to protect it as I carried it hither (and potentially even thither).

The solution...after a rather dispiriting search through a rather large selection of unexcitingly bland options...this faux leather, striped cotton lined, version from incase...one of a series curated by art magazine Arkitip...by Paris based graffiti artist/club owner/subject of many of the images on Purple blog/and general man-about-town André.

The accompanying video (because nowadays there's always a video) is pure French cool...black and white...featuring a passage from Le Paysan de Paris and an original arrangement of Serge Gainsbourg’s “L’alcool”.

For all the time that I spend on my laptop I've never actually done much (unless you count the sticky dots that I added in a fit of boredom) in the way of embellishing it...which is odd considering that I'll add crap...I mean thoughtfully purchased and deeply meaningful ephemera...no, I admit it, I mean crap...to most inanimate objects and flat surfaces.

Some of the fruits of the collaboration between Urban Outfitters and Society6 (a global collective of artists) though are making me wonder if it isn't time to peel off the paper dots and replace them with something a little jazzier.

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven; A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck that which is planted." - the Bible

I'd like you to meet my new travel companion. He's fun...entertaining...and, provided I actually remember to charge my iTouch's battery, he's there whenever I need him. He is Plants vs Zombies...

...an addictive little app that allows you, the happy homeowner, to battle all manner of mutated zombies with equally mutated produce (doom-shrooms, cabbage-pults, garlic, peashooters, and a host of others horticultural anomalies form your arsenal).

It's the most fun you can have for $2.99 and, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll toddle off and see if I can get to the next level...

Jasco Chan's comb USB drive (aka the "Barber") creates a modern etiquette problem worthy of Miss Manners...in all likelihood you wouldn't groom yourself in public (well, unless you happen to be the gentleman that I used to sit near...back in my days of cubicle hell...who would clip his nails into his wastepaper basket each morning)...but would you use a grooming tool to hold your important data?

Generally the magic words "size issue" are accompanied by dark thoughts about the designer who (clearly) mis-marked his designs so as to make the consumer feel rotten about themselves by having to take a garment marked a size or two larger than they normally wear into the changing room...or the retailer who panders to the public with vanity sizing and causes the opposite angst as you can't figure out how low you could (or should) go as you rattle through the hangers...what you don't expect to be talking about is a laptop sleeve. And yet, here we are...

Marc Jacobs' laptop sleeve is...leopard printed...insanely gorgeous...and...14" wide. Too large for my hopefully-soon-to-be-retired PowerBook...too small for the MacBook Pro of my dreams...I'm having nerdy size issues and I don't like it.