Neel Parikh

So both of you guys who read this blog have probably noticed that I haven’t posted in a while. I’ve been sick in bed for the past few days, long story short, it’s most likely strep, and man does it suck to not be able to enjoy food without excruciating pain.  On the plus side it’s given me the opportunity to assemble some “Swedish” modular furniture (made in China, no doubt). I’ve had a love an hate relationship with Ikea since I moved in to my condo. I love the fact that I can get stuff that looks decent and is cheap. I hate the fact that it’s cheap. Okay, let me elaborate on that – it’s cheaply made. It looks fantastic, until you get close and realize that it’s just laminated MDF (if you’re lucky), but more likely particle board.  For some reason, laminate is all the rage, the bee’s knees, the successor to sliced bread, and I can’t understand why… in most casts it’s a picture of real wood printed onto a friggin sticker, then stuck to the scraps of wood that are left behind on the factory floor. hooo-ray. At least I know that it’s only temporary, and that when I can afford the kinda stuff I really want, I can always sell my LACK Coffee table to some 1st year arts student so s/he’ll have more money to buy baked beans and ramen.  If you manage to not destroy your Asian-made Swedish furniture by sliding dishes across it too many times (read: three), it’s always got good resale value. On the other hand, buy a good piece of furniture, and it’ll last you forever… but you’ll never get your money back if you get sick of it.

Check out Environment Furniture – they’ve got some super-sweet stuff, and I was stoked on their Santos Coffee Table until I found out that they had more than 100% markup in Canada. I was told by the snooty saleslady that it could be mine for a paltry $1700 + taxes. yah.. right. eat me. twice. seriously. It’s nice, perhaps even 21 times nicer than the LACK. But unless they’re willing to share some of the crack that they’re smoking, I think I’ll put my drink back down on my laminated particle board and get back to watching Burn Notice.