My form of unwinding and comfortable meditation towards relaxation usually involves running circuits on an imaginary or hyper realistic racetrack on my Xbox to smooth trance melodies. If I don't have access to my music and videogames, I'm watching last night's daily show (which uploads to stream at 12:30am or 10:30 PST?). If I stayed up till 12:30am to watch a good daily show episode, ill check YouTube for Top Gear episodes or general "neat" stuff on YouTube. Last resort is my movies or browsing reddit.
Technology as a background is my day to day. Music for cooking, music for driving, TV for movies or homework, videogames for something to unwind.
Sure I might repair a TV, make a shirt or design a newer zanier decal for my car, but I only have one broken TV, a blank shirt here or there and a car that borders on being "too busy/cluttered" as-is.
I've lived without technology before, but never happily. I used to have overly elaborate schemes of buying a small TV, running an AC/DC inverter and then plugging in an adapter for a VHS all for a 6hr road trip.
Seems my technological goals are always irrelevant by the time I'm ready to buy the tech I think I need.
I had a list of things Id need for entering college or an entry level job in radio or broadcast; cell phone, MP3 player, video player, palm pilot, videogame handheld device a laptop, 2tb hard drive space,HDTV, VGA to HD-Component conversion cables, computer monitor and a camcorder.
Now that list can be squeezed into iPhone, laptop, hard drive, and an HDTV.
It's come to the point where I build my list a little more lofty than imagined because by the time I need to fulfill that list It'l be more achievable than previously thought.
My list for a job in Michigan merely involves how to move my car, furniture and devices using ties with my brother's shipping company. I do this because I don't know how much a 1kw solar unit will cost me to install by Fall with the 40% commercial solar barrier being broken a few months ago. I wouldn't bother buying a new TV or Sound system in Utah only to move it to Michigan just in time for it to become obsolete by a newer better TV/sound system.
All my purchases now are "legacy" items; things I can use for years without needing newer versions. The base level of existence. TV, Computer, Mouse, Games, Speakers, Movies, folding Cot, iPhone 4, screwdriver set, folding chair, frying pan, hard drive, LED lightbulbs.
The faster I break into long term legacy purchases, the more time and surplus money I have to branch out on exterior costs like mortgage payments, luxury TV, couches without floral patterns, food w/o title of "great value", Husky dog, fancy jackets, and perhaps the ability to hold onto a girlfriend without the ubiquitous "if you really love me buy me _____".
I guess my financial stability or paranoia can be attributed to both my parents being raised by survivors of WWII and the Great Depression in which economic stability meant buying 600lbs of flour instead of hitting up the local five & dime/piggly wiggly for a prime cut steak.
I'm of the stand that "if you don't have money, don't buy it". There are of course exceptions, but all of my tech purchases have been towards longevity. As it stands already I worry about my 50,000 count disk tray warranty or the integrity of any device or machine with unnecessary moving parts.
I'm not in the driver seat but I aim to keep it that way so that I may never have to worry about being without the tech that has built me up to the situation and standing I am in now.
Much love, Cory Carter.
