No picture (yet), but a story...
First off, despite the potential to be OCD, I'm perhaps the farthest thing from a SA-wannabe on this board. It would be so easy to slip into the chase for perfection, I'm better off just avoiding the whole attraction entirely. All that said...
Flash back to about 2 years ago...
Crystal Skull is coming up soon. Thinking of Indy for the first time in a decade, I suddenly miss my collection of Young Indiana Jones soundtracks (among the handful of CDs I wore down to nubbins listening to whilst trekking across the city to University in the early '90s). While arranging to have those delivered to me out of storage, I start to Google to see "what's up". (A this point, I REALLY should have known better. Usually when this happens I end up spending a couple of years and thousands of dollars deeply re-obsessing over a former passion.
http://www.travellermap.com was the last one.
http://www.calormen.com/Logo is more recent.)
Flash forward a few months - on a trip with the munchkin to Disneyland, my wife picks me up one of the extremely cheap unlined, crushable wool teardrops*. Hey, what's wrong with that? Looks perfect, right? Wear it to the Crystal Skull premier, am so cool.
A few more months, and I realize I need a bag to schlep stuff to/from work (20 minute walk), I wonder what Indy carries? OMFG those kids on Club Obi-Wan are insane. (Tangent: I picked up what is now known as a "Jack Bauer" bag from Urban Outfitters online.) Reading... reading... rolling eyes... reading... start ordering too many safari shirts... reading... hey, whips, that sounds cool... reading... order german alpine backpack... buy ziplight and customize... reading... reading... MUST NOT SPEND MONEY...
So about four months ago it's actually *sunny* in San Francisco. (I *know*!) I dig out a hat. Yes, the cheap-### wool teardrop. Oh, sheez. Now that I've actually read this board, it's... unwearable! The horror... the horror...
So.
Step 1: find a pot that's about as wide as the hat
Step 2: invert said hat into the pot
Step 3: fill the hat with boiling water
Step 4: wait for the water to cool to room temperature
Step 5: pour out the water. The hat now looks like part of the Seamus McFly collection.
Step 6: heat up an iron. steam a central bash in to within an inch of its life
Step 7: use a metal clip on the front of the hat to get a SOC-esque pinch
Step 8: get the clip too hot and singe the wool a bit. *sigh*
Step 9: look at the hat, realize the brim is too stiff and wide
Step 10: cut off the sewn brim edge (and remove the plastic ring!)
Step 11: ask myself what I have done
Step 12: wear the #### thing, in spite of it all
Inexcusable taper. Floppy brim. Scorched pinch. But it keeps the sun off on the walk to work, and the co-workers can correctly assume I'm treading the fine line between eccentric and insane.
* I love the tag, though - laminated that and use it as a bookmark.