All I Need for Christmas Are Some New Brake Pads

I've known for a month or so that my brakes have been squealing ridiculously. But I was kind of enjoying the noise they made as it was far effective than my bell as a warning to tourists who walked blindly into the bike side of the Brooklyn bridge path.
When I finally got around to taking off and replacing my brakes, I was horrified. Somehow I'd managed to not only wear through most of the rubber, I'd actually eaten into the metal core of the brake pad as well (image 1)
My cherished squealing noise had actually been metal on metal - as the gouges on my rims can attest (image 2 - click to zoom in and view the carnage up close). Now I am not only replacing my brake pads, I'm going to have to get a new set of wheels as well. Lesson learned, but this wasn't exactly what I wanted to be buying myself for Christmas.
Though if I were more mechanically inclined, I'd start manufacturing the squealing brake bike horn. A preliminary Google search indicates that such a product does not currently exist.

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