Seams
So, I was doing the laundry last night, and I started thinking about seams. You know, the part of clothes where you fold two pieces of cloth together and sew them together.

Seems to me, all clothes are made the same way. You fold the two pieces together, then sew them so that the interior has a rough, unfinished edge, and the exterior has a smooth, sleek line.

However, I've noticed that if I sit cross-legged in jeans (as I often do when I'm coding on my laptop), the seams can get uncomfortable, and leave red lines on the skin of my legs. So, I was thinking, why do we make clothes like that? Psychologically, why do we put the uncomfortable side so close to our actual skin?

The only good reason that jumps to mind is that it looks ugly to have the seams on the exterior. Our basic need for symmetry makes an irregular seam abhorrant. However, this reason only seems to enhance the idea that we are willing to sacrifice comfort for looks. I hate that impression. I actively avoid it.

What's really weird is how innured we are in that method for all of our clothes. It's not a class thing, because we do this to Tuxedos, suit jackets, dress shirts, t-shirts, even sweaters. And I don't understand sweaters being in that list at all. If you're knitting the entire thing as one piece, why would it have seams at all?

We even do this to underwear, which can't really claim that it's done for looks. I mean, why have the seams on the inside, when nobody's going to be looking at the outside?

Maybe I'm just off on a rant at this point, but I don't really see a purpose behind having seams at all. All through history, clothiers have been hindered by the basic premise that they had to work with flat pieces of cloth, stitching them together to make other shapes. However, we have made huge strides in clothing over the last thousand years or so.

We keep seeing stories about "mood clothes" that will change color to match the user's heat signature; or the "stain proof" clothes that use nanotechnology to move foreign matter off of the surface. So how hard would it be, to stitch denim material together in the shape of a pair of pants? How hard would it be to make cotton cloth in the shape of a T-shirt? I mean, if it's that difficult for us, why don't we get those nano-mites working on it?

It seems odd that in one way, we have completely transcended past science, but in another way, we are irrevocably mired in an ancient form of thinking, so ingrained that we don't even recognize it as a form of thinking at all.

Ah, well. Such a lot of thought about such a small, thin line. Never mind.


In other news, I've now completely changed the FlipBall game over to it's new name "Limit", and I've submitted it to PopCap. Hopefully, sometime today or tomorrow, I'll set up a banner ad, and try to start getting some online sales.

That's right. V1.0 is out the door, and available here Limit
- posted by BrandG @ 12:00 AM