I had been telling my girlfriend about the Beat Gasoline contest a bunch lately, and so when it came time for my birthday recently, she told me to put my money where my mouth is and decided to buy me a new bike.  Awesome!! I'm pretty stoked on it and made a pledge to ride to work at least three times a week in my effort to beat gasoline.

                     My new bike!!!!!

The whole thing got me thinking, what are some other birthday presents that would be pretty cool to help beat gasoline.  I came up with a few ideas below and did pros and cons for each one.  While many of the others were great presents too, on balance, I'm glad I got a bike.

Skateboard. 

Pros: Convenient.  Take it anywhere.  Makes you look cool (so long as you remember to take that bow off first)

Cons: Not as effecient as a bike. Difficult to get up curbs. Crotchety old shopkeepers will think you're up to no good. 

Hot Air Balloon

Pros:  When you arrive at school in this thing, you will pretty much be the awesomest kid in school.

Cons: You don't really have much control over where you land.  Power lines can also be kind of iffy...

Segway

Pros: Doesn't use gas.  Off road capabilities. If you glue your feet to the machine, you can pretend you are a cyborg. 

Cons: Still uses electricity, which is made from coal and other fossil fuels. You'd have to be an idiot to try taking one of these things offroad. If you glue your feet to the machine and pretend you are a cyborg everyone will probably laugh at you until you cry.

Pony

Pros:  Doesn't require gasoline. Eats hay. Is magical.

Cons: Very expensive. Bad breath. Poops a lot.