Last Christmas I made Paracord Bracelets for my friends, in my first and to date only attempt at any sort of jewelry making. I’ve worn mine ever since, pretty much daily. I’m a big believer in only wearing jewelry that means something to me, so with an absence of other bracelets, the paracord was the only accessory I would wear. Recently I’ve thought of branching out – for instance, I’ve got a student who makes paracord bracelets making me one of her signature pieces, and the other day I stumbled upon something in my closet that reminded me of times past – and gave me an idea for a new bracelet.

So back about 15 years ago, if you bought a computer case, you’d find something that today would baffle most: A tubular key lock on the front (And usually 2 keys that fit it). These key locks could be plugged into a special set of pins on the motherboard that, when the key was in the locked position, would lock out the keyboard. A cheap and effective way to disable a computer so that unauthorized individuals couldn’t access it (Have you tried to use a computer without a keyboard? Today you can sorta get away with it – in 1995 it was impossible!). I had a bunch of the keys for these locks, as did many of my friends, because they were mostly universal. Everyone carried one on their key ring in case they came upon a locked keyboard (Which could happen in computer labs – ask me about my 8th grade computer class final sometime for a story), and it was (at least to me) somewhat a badge of geekdom to have one.

The other day I found a few in my closet and thought “Gee, anyone who sees one of these will instantly recognize it… and anyone who doesn’t recognize it hasn’t been a geek too long!”. What better thing to make a geek bracelet out of?