Our Christmas present to ourselves, if you want to call it that, was a flat screen TV. But it was just that a really good sale happened around Christmas and we decided at the price advertised, we were more than happy to spend the money. On getting a flat screen, finally.
Up until now, we were hanging on to the Russian lover's ancient 21 inch box of a television. It worked just fine and there never seemed to be a good time to buy a TV. To be the people that went out and blew hundreds of dollars on a television? Ugh. How pedestrian. We'd rather spend hundreds of dollars on champagne and pretend we aren't rushing home to catch a new episode of Real Housewives.
In this country there seems to be an inverse relationship between a person's wealth and the size of their television. Not always, mind you -- sometimes a guy in a red Ferrari is just a guy in a red Ferrari and not a guy obfuscating his lack of endowment. Plenty of the materially endowed have grandiose televisions. But is there anyone on government assistance not watching their cousin's appearance on Maury via a 60 inch plasma? I didn't think so.
Anyway, I'm used to having yesterday's technology. That's what happens when you live with a true techie. The shoemaker's children go barefoot, and the internet guru's girlfriends are bereft of gadgetry. But everything we do have? It works. And you wouldn't believe our internet connectivity. Download speed? Right now I'm watching the YouTube video you haven't even made yet.
The thing is, techies know that technology is more fickle than fashion, and you're better off dusting off a pair of parachute pants than buying the latest "it" device. The device will A. not work or B. break or C. you will leave it in the back of the cab and be out a paycheck. And, if the device is awesome, then next week there will be ten kinds of that device, all for 1/2 the price and double the awesomeness.
When it comes to fashion, some people jump on a decade's excesses and others wait to see what will emerge and become a staple, at least, if not a classic. Technology is no less expensive and no less dynamic, so it doesn't hurt to hang back a little and watch. You, there, with the HD DVD player? You know I'm right.