I’m a short man.  I’m sure you probably guessed that if you’ve read the title of my blog.  (Of course, the number of people who are reading my blog who don’t actually know me undoubtedly smaller than the number of “how’s the weather up there?” comments I’ve ever heard.)  I’m 5′-3″, 135 lbs (when it’s not holiday season).  Justin can palm my head.

This post is right up my alley. In it, Kathy Sierra is complaining that free T-shirts often suck because the sizes are all wrong.

Luckily, at least the shirts I get are the right gender, but the sizes are always screwed up.  For instance, I won a couple T-shirts in TopCoder competitions (one from Google Jam and one from the TCO).  The TCO sent me this hideous lavender/purple XL T-shirt with no less than 8 LARGE corporate logos all over it.  The stupid thing is TopCoder has pictures of its members on its site (optionally, of course), but a quick sample will tell you the vast majority are not XL guys.  I mean, c’mon, isn’t the stereotypical nerd a super skinny guy with bad hair, broken glasses, and a perpetually runny nose?  I think I fit that perfectly.

Kudos to Google, BTW; they actually asked me what size I was and sent me a very nice shirt that I still wear.  I couldn’t even give away that purple disaster.

And it doesn’t stop at free stuff: ever try to buy a suit off the rack if you’re 5′-3″?  I wear a 36 Short jacket, which typically leaves me with options of 3 different shades of tweed or a sports coat made out of wicker, paper mache, and empty toner cartridges.

Sure, I’m at the short end of the gradient, so it may not be worth supporting me, but this last one is just stupid.  I’ve been to many stores that put their jeans in cubbies along a big wall.  And of course, they store them in size order, from smallest (waist & inseam) to largest, from top to bottom?  Huh?  That’s just stupid.

But hey, I’m not really complaining.  I can cross my legs in coach.  Heh heh.