captain_slinky (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
captain_slinky) wrote2005-08-24 04:22 pm
captain_slinky) wrote2005-08-24 04:22 pm
Recent revelation
I don't enjoy having everything I want... I enjoy GETTING everything I want.
Seriously! Here I am in an apartment litterally CRAMMED FULL of stuff that I have always wanted and now have. Am I happy with it? HELL NO! But when I was *getting* all this stuff? Hell yeah I was having a good time! The Back To The Future Deloreon Model Kit is just a trophy to PROVE to my fellow hunters that yes, I was the mighty hunter who bagged that one.
And that is the Twilight Zone twist to the current trend of catering to all the Geeks like me. There's nothing left to get! I remember searching high and low, finally paying something like $80 for every episode of Transformers on bootlegged VHS at a convention. Gettign that collection was THE BEST, even if I never watched it! Now even the most obscure of 80's entertainment properties are available with a single click on Amazon.com... no hunt, no chase. Just CLICK and 3 days later you own every episode of Punky Brewster.
I keep on thinking that I'm collecting all this stuff for my kid, who some day will want all these things like I did. But why would he want these things? There's no chase. There's no longing. It's just *there*, to be taken for granted.
This depressing train of thought has had at least one positive stop on its route; I am eing much more considerate in my own purchases now. I always think "Sure I want that, but how am I gonna feel once I *have* it?"
$120 credit at Suncoast Video and nothin I really want to HAVE :(
Seriously! Here I am in an apartment litterally CRAMMED FULL of stuff that I have always wanted and now have. Am I happy with it? HELL NO! But when I was *getting* all this stuff? Hell yeah I was having a good time! The Back To The Future Deloreon Model Kit is just a trophy to PROVE to my fellow hunters that yes, I was the mighty hunter who bagged that one.
And that is the Twilight Zone twist to the current trend of catering to all the Geeks like me. There's nothing left to get! I remember searching high and low, finally paying something like $80 for every episode of Transformers on bootlegged VHS at a convention. Gettign that collection was THE BEST, even if I never watched it! Now even the most obscure of 80's entertainment properties are available with a single click on Amazon.com... no hunt, no chase. Just CLICK and 3 days later you own every episode of Punky Brewster.
I keep on thinking that I'm collecting all this stuff for my kid, who some day will want all these things like I did. But why would he want these things? There's no chase. There's no longing. It's just *there*, to be taken for granted.
This depressing train of thought has had at least one positive stop on its route; I am eing much more considerate in my own purchases now. I always think "Sure I want that, but how am I gonna feel once I *have* it?"
$120 credit at Suncoast Video and nothin I really want to HAVE :(
no subject
And yeah, the GETTING is the fun part. HAVING just means you have to pack it & carry it up & down several flights of stairs when & if you move. Of course, once you have that realization that the GETTING is the good bit, and you've carried all your cool shit up & down several flights of stairs 3 or 4 times, you begin to define what qualifies as worth HAVING... to the extent of having to carry whatever it is up & down the stairs 5 or 6 more times on top of what you've already done.
That's when you start to accumulate the things/stuff that you'd kill to protect.
I have one (just one) box of books that qualifies that way.
no subject
Though in retrospect, it's mostly just funny in small doses. Watching more than a couple episodes at once just starts to become highly repetitive.
no subject
the 1st, repeat after me, I won't grow up, won't ever wear a tie, or a serious expression in the middle of July!
and 2nd, You know what really bites? When you find that rare copy of some film or piece of music that really and I mean really impacted you in your 20's, you watch it and realize it isn't very good after all.
no subject
It *musta* been love, but it's over now...
no subject
no subject
But just think, now that you understand that you don't have to buy every little thing that has a copywrighted character on it you can save up to buy something that you would *really* love to have. With what we have spent on buying/storing all the stuff we've aquired since I've moved here we could have paid for a trip to Disneyworld *and* a big friggen tv.
I don't necessarily think you are growing up, your priorities/perceptions of importance are just changing. You and I will always appreciate a trip to a Disney theme park more than some stuffy wine tasting event or trip to the tropics.
By the way - I'm sure that the kid will appreciate having toys/cool things saved for him. You and I have an appreciation of old things, our kid will probably have it too. We just don't want to overwhelm him with our storage unit full of unsorted/half broken stuff. We don't want him to take things for granted, he needs to appreciate the cool stuff he has.