The Purchasing Illusion

Last weekend I went to one of THE 'churches' I attend on a regular basis, Princess Auto, a hardware, tools and general surplus store, that has stuff from sunglasses, and surplus liquidation computer and car accessory equipment, to farm milk bowls and generators, wood and metal working tools... A man's haven, a place that smells like it should be a man's cologne... Lot of women come in there, but generally wives and girl friends... like the ones that watch foot-ball and wrestling with their man, bringing the beer and cheering at the right time...ok, ok, that's really sexist... actually it does smell good, and the women are farm wives, or just as interested in the place as the guys, and probably just as knowledgeable...

well I was there for 'bout an hour, browsing here and there, picking up a pair of winter sunglasses, gloves, magnifying glass, etc, small stuff, 1 dollar to 6 dollars... not paying attention to how much the damage would be... when I got to checking out, I was surprised that my purchases were 63 dollars... Whoa!!! did I spend that, nothing that was an extravagances... after the initial shock I went ahead and paid it...

everyone gets e-mail notices telling them of the latest and greatest in software upgrades for their computer programs, right... well, I had been getting notices about upgrading some of my computer programs over the past 3 months... and the last 3 weeks, after purchasing a new 300 gig hard drive and having some issues with my old 200 gig drive, and an even older computer (p3-667) I realized I needed to upgrade some and there were a few more programs I didn't have... just small stuff really, 25-40 dollars, one was 99, but it was important in that if I wanted to recover lost files this would do it... this is all in aid of keeping the computer current and in good working order, as well as protecting my files and computer...

but again, when I stopped to think about it this morning, (before I had my first coffee, miracle of miracles) I came to realize that again my credit card / bank account, is being nickeld and dimed to death... and I have now put on hold the purchases of two new programs for the music library, and an upgrade (second in the past year) for a paint program, and the purchase of another paint program from the same company that would further enhance the main program... this latter would help financially in the long run, but right now would be extravagance...

this 'Wake up call' has me thinking about the feeding and care of these 'slaves, pets, tools' we have invited into our houses... seems a bit of an update on the camel and the Bedouin... you know the one, where the camel is outside the tent, and he complains about the cold... can he , the camel, just stick his nose in, to keep it warm, oook... then a few minutes later, how about his front feet, oooook... well eventually he is in the tent and the Bedouin is out in the cold...

and that is where I am thinking these computers may end up putting us... out in the cold... with our computer's owning the house and us sleeping on the streets...what are we using them for and why is it costing so much for software and hardware upgrades and accessories... why for one particular area, ie. music, is it going to cost 100Cnd to convert files from format to format, and organize the files into a library, so that they can be found... then another program to record, analyze and filter, change recordings, which I bought back when a P2 was new, for 149 dollars, which I have not needed to upgrade, it is doing the job just fine thank you very much and I am hoping when I upgrade to Visat, it will continue to work... (but now checking to see if there is an upgrade, find the co. had been bought out by one of the big boys and the software is now being sold under a new name and for 350Us, for the base product which has way more add on bits and tweaks than I, a simple home user would ever need or use... keeping my fingers crossed…)

now these are not bread and butter issues, things that I can't live without... other than the paint programs, they are just hobby stuff... they enhance the usability of the investment that is sitting in this corner, becoming a money pit... growling every so often at me as I pass by ;) and I am beginning to wonder what justifies it's existence in my life... where does it enhance that life, and is the enhancement absolutely imperative to have... how to control the burgeoning expense in accesories that threatens the bank balance, after the initial purchase...the initial purchase of 5 to 600 dollars for a computer seems"Affordable!",

this is the Purchasing Illusion -THE EXTRAS: Internet Access, online memberships, Office Programs, Virus and Adware protection, fire wall, encryption programs, spam ware protection, games, utilities, software ad infinitum... extra memory, universal power supplies, hard drives, video cards, printers, scanners, better monitor etc... in the life of the computer, 3-5 years we add hundreds, perhaps thousands to the purchase...bit by bit over the years, it grows like a bubble, until the natural happens and the computer is totally obsolete, no purchase is going to bring new life to it (like my P3) and needs replacing... and we hope and pray that some of the stuff we purchased is still current with today's technological wonder... and the cycle is repeated...