The party John was talking about in this post was for me, not DougJ, I turned 50 (the colonoscopy birthday) yesterday. I am much farther along in the tedious slog from bassinet to nursing home bed than either John or DougJ.
While we’re talking about my so-called life, let’s pause to read a few words from Freddie de Boer:
So take this piece on Gizmodo by the whimsically named Mark Spoonauer: “Why You’ll End Up Wearing a Smart Watch.” This particular title is not an accident. What is to be argued here is not that there are relative merits to wearing a smartwatch which the reader might be convinced of, leading, if he or she has the means, to a purchase. Such a hands-off approach risks failure. Instead, the command is plain: you will buy this product. […]
Of course, the reason why demand has to be created for such a product is pretty plain: it is among the most colossally unnecessary objects for which coin has ever changed hands. […]
That Brian Ries could actually say that his life has been changed by having a device that projects his text messages onto his wrist means that there’s not a lot going on, emotionally, for Brian right now. […]
I don’t think there’s any clearer indicator of the difference between me and Freddie than the fact that, shortly after reading his piece, I got an email from Pebble telling me that the smartwatch that that I bought from them on Kickstarter will be shipping in the next two weeks. I’ll have a full review after I get it and wear it for a while. Perhaps, in honor of Freddie, I’ll post an unboxing video, just so he can feel, if not morally superior, at least comfortable in the fact that there’s more going on, emotionally, for Freddie right now.
I’m a strikingly immature person, really, but I did outgrow the worry over what others are consuming, how consumption enforces conformity, and the rest of what Freddie wrings his hands over a long time ago. Human beings are really a silly bunch, and they always will be, and if that causes you to mourn rather than chuckle, your journey from Pampers to Depends is going to seem like a fucking eternity.
raven
Fuckin A right.
SiubhanDuinne
Well, then, it’s a damn good thing I didn’t wish DougJ a happy birthday.
Happy birthday to you, mistermix. Take it from one who knows, 70 is just around the corner.
SiubhanDuinne
Wouldn’t it be a LULZ to unban tokoloko for a little while, just for this thread?
Zapruder F. Mashtots, D.D.S. (Mumphrey, et al.)
I hate the new website. It doesn’t even look new, but I hate it anyway. I couldn’t get onto the site all weekend! Do the administrators know this? I punched the refresh button both constantly and consistently for over 40 hours, stopping neither to eat nor sleep, nor even to masturbate. It was all I could do not to send 300 irate e-mails to John Cole and all the other front-pagers. My life is now ruined. Thanks for nothing.
The foregoing is presented as a public service. Now nobody needs to bitch about it in the comments. If anyone feels the need to bitch, or even moan, kindly refer to this helpful post and rest assured that all your sentiments have been adequately vented for your convenience.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
Happy Birthday mistermix!
I think that just about anyone who read “Dick Tracy” as a kid has been wondering when smart watch/wrist TV gizmos were going to be here. They may not be practical for a long time (due to limited battery life), but I think people will buy them when they’re “good enough”.
Cheers,
Scott.
jeffreyw
Whippersnapper! Don’t be scuffin’ my turf!
Linda Featheringill
50? Ah, you’re still a baby!
Why when I was your age . . . .
Linda Featheringill
@Zapruder F. Mashtots, D.D.S. (Mumphrey, et al.):
Well said! :-)
Soonergrunt
Happy birthday, Mistermix. I don’t feel quite as now. Thanks for that.
jeffreyw
Missed the conclave.
mai naem
Wow, mistermix, from John’s post, I was surprised that Doug was that old but I seriously thought you were in your early to mid twenties. Color me shocked. Happy B-day. Enjoy your colonoscopy and, also, don’t you have to get some proctological stuff done too?
Amir Khalid
After the functions handled by your smartphone, your tablet, and your iPod, what’s left for a smartwatch to do, anyway?
Oh and Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Cardinal mistermix? Felicitations on hitting the big Five-Oh.
R-Jud
At first I thought the title of this post was “Massage from an Old”, and thought, well, do I at least get to pick which old?
I tried to read the excerpt from FdB but immediately rolled my eyes at “the whimsically named Mark Spoonauer”. That’s not… really a whimsical name. Gabriel McBottom, Felicity Felopitous, Albus Dumbledore, my childhood friend Cara Mell (really): these are whimsical names.
Whatsleft
Yeah but what if you cannot wear a watch due to your weird magnetic field that prevents a watch from doing its watchly duty? Do you automatically have more going on in life, or are you unduly deprived of a really cool toy?
And Happy Birthday mistermix!
evap
Happy birthday, mistermix!
And very well said. One of the (few) good things about aging for me is that I’ve become much more comfortable with myself and no longer care much what other people think. (Although I must confess that when Crocs first hit the scene I was going to buy a pair, but was stopped by my daughters telling me that they wouldn’t be seen in public with me if I did.)
Morbo
Thanks for the judicious use of ellipses on Freddie’s post, oh wise one.
FlyingToaster
I carry a smartphone — in part — to tell time; watches make me itch. Always have. I actually broke 9 watches in 14 months when I had my first job; they weren’t strong enough to stand up to my restocking the bins. Also, watches for teenage girls in the ’70s were cheap.
Mistermix: I found the four days of prep for the colonoscopy worse than the 6 hours of terror running up to my [emergency] C-section. Especially the last evening, when you drink a couple gallons of the most disgusting stuff ever. Good luck with that.
Baud
Mistermix is 50! No wonder this site is so buggy. We’re probably running on a UNIVAC…
Ha! Just kidding. Happy birthday, and thanks for all that you do!
Cassidy
Speaking of smart electronic stuff, since we had that discussion not so long ago about Google Glass and augmented reality, etc., the medical community (especially EMS) is already looking at how it can be integrated into current prcatice and SOP’s. Some of the ideas are really good.
Betty Cracker
Ain’t that the Troof! And Happy Birthday, O Ancient One!
Rex Everything
I can’t see how one could read Freddie’s post as criticism of new technology, or of anyone who enjoys new technology, or of “consumption enforcing conformity.” He’s hating on the increasingly didactic way things are publicized and sold. You can find the same critique, in a different form, commonly voiced on South Park or The Simpsons.
I mean, Christ, in the very thing you quoted he references the “relative merits to wearing a smartwatch which the reader might be convinced of, leading, if he or she has the means, to a purchase.”
To reply “Oh yeah? Well, I just ordered one, so FUCK YOU!” is to miss the point completely.
Woodrow/asim Jarvis Hill
@Amir Khalid:
I was kind of worried about that at first, as well.
What my Pebble provides is a return to a sense of norms — not normalcy, but a sense that you’re controlling when you’re connected, and how. Because Pebble alerts me to calls and SMS messages, I can get those on my wrist without having to poke at my ringing/vibrating phone, and the annoyances that provides — to me, in part, but esp. to people I’m engaging in conversations or public activities with.
And when you’re on-call, that’s really important. It may not be so for people who don’t have to have a cell phone leashed to them, or who don’t engage in public activities quite as much.
Add to that other functions — I’ve not owned a watch in forever, since I’ve had a cell phone for decades, now. To see time with a glance is something I frankly forgot how useful it is — and how often I use it! And I know people will laugh, but again, that’s not why I got it, and the return to that norm is just a bonus in my head.
Another bonus is the ability to control music on my phone with it. And what that’s meant is closer-to heads-up seeing/changing tracks when driving, and that’s a big difference in how comfortable I feel listening to music when driving.
And that’s a start. As one review noted, the feel of the device is that it’s opening up new options, and it’s no mistake that Apple has rumored making, and Samsung has flat-out said they’re developing, smartwatches. As someone who’s been around to see a LOT of kit come and go, I doubt this is just another example of conspicuous consumption (noting that’s not exactly what Freddie might be talking about); it’s the opening salvo in a new stage of tech innovation (with the caveat that the smartwatch has been around since the Timex watch that kept contacts in the 80s).
lojasmo
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
The pebble can go for a week without charging, and charges with USB. It is “good enough” right now.
Cassidy
@Rex Everything: You must not read much Freddie.
Freddie deBoer
I don’t think people detect that all of my pieces in this vein are slightly tongue in cheek.
Gindy51
@FlyingToaster: They’ve changed all that stuff now a days at least at the hospital where I get mine (some backwater SE IN place). Now they give you two pills and tell you to stay by a toilet and don’t eat anything solid.
The not eating was hardest for me as I get extremely dizzy without food.
RP
I find Freddie’s writing impenetrable.
Cassidy
@Freddie deBoer:
Usually, we’re thinking condescending.
Freddie deBoer
Also: the fact that you take that piece to be such a deeply personal insult indicates that you react to it in precisely the way that you accuse me of reacting to your pebble watch. Who cares what I write? Human beings are a silly bunch…. You see what I mean? You can no more enjoy your time on earth getting worked up about the things I write than I can by getting wrapped up about your watch.
Linda Featheringill
@Freddie deBoer:
Hey, Freddie! Howtheheck are ya?
Amir Khalid
Also, some tactful soul should explain to Freddie de Boer that the adjective “consumptive” means “suffering from tuberculosis”; thus, a “consumptive choice” is a choice that suffers from a particular life-threatening illness. The phrase he really wants is “consumer choice”.
Randy P
I’m not a huge fan of Gene Weingarten, who filled the space in the WaPo left by Dave Barry when Barry quit his syndicated column. But he’s done some good stuff. Here’s part of a column dated Sep 3, 2006, advice from a man in his 50s to one in his 20s (on my phone so can’t link)
I haven’t hit example #3, but have already passed the first 2.
Suffern ACE
In the future, the smart watch and the colonoscopy will be two sides of the same rite of passage. Was that the point I’m missing?
arguingwithsignposts
Happy birthday, mistermix.
I, for one, hate wearing watches. They make my skin break out in a rash. All of them I’ve ever used. So no, I won’t be buying one.
But the headline on that article was stupid. It’s typical tech journalism bullshit writing.
Thor Heyerdahl
@Suffern ACE:
Wasn’t this Bruce Willis’ part of the plot of Pulp Fiction?
bago
I suspect that by the time I’m 50, my watch will simply be a set of target points to align an augmented reality display over.
FFrank
I had a casio smartwatch and it was useful. now with bluetooth headset, the cloud and the watchband that can be a battery. I can picture a special type of pretentious asshole using this. no biggie either way…
Rex Everything
@Amir Khalid: Ridiculous. “Consumptive” doesn’t necessarily mean “suffering from consumption,” any more than “consumption” necessarily means “tuberculosis.”
Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Cardinal mistermix
@Freddie deBoer: I didn’t take the piece as a deeply personal insult at all. Deeply personal insults involve one’s wife and children, not their technology choices. Mostly I thought it was funny that I got my shipping notice a few minutes after I read your piece, and I was mocking (gently, I hope) how seriously you took the whole thing. I mean, really, Freddie, a guy who emotes as much as you making a judgment about the emotional state of some poor geek tech writer? Talk about a fat target for a little good-natured ribbing.
BTW, I sure missed the part where your tongue was in your cheek, but as stated clearly at the top of the piece, I’m an old, old man and therefore I can’t tell when you youngsters are making sport or being serious.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
My only lament is that I chose to be born about 30 years too early (I’m slightly older than John). I want to see what’s around 30 years after I die, optimistically assuming that we will fix some of the crap that Republicans won’t let us fix right now.
Gin & Tonic
@bago: Yeah, and I was supposed to have flying cars by the time I was 50.
Amir Khalid
@Rex Everything:
Does too.
Punchy
Say it ain’t so….
chopper
@Amir Khalid:
gotta give chinese slave laborers something to make, right?
besides, we’re sick of our phones now. if we don’t distract ourselves with some shiny new thing, pretty soon we’re going to have to actually talk to people. ugh.
Randy P
I@Belafon (formerly anonevent): I hear you. I’m glad to have seen the whole space race and the moon landing. I’d love to stick around long enough to see: an interplanetary mission, a major revolution in physics, the death of the Republican Party and the triumph of the DFH ideals. I’ve got reasonable optimism off seeing most of that I think.
arguingwithsignposts
@Rex Everything: I thought you were Zandar’s stalker. Are you pulling double duty now? I hope they pay you more.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Happy Birthday mistermix.
MikeJ
@chopper: I believe this was the comment that mix was mocking in the first place.
gelfling545
You will find that being old is not all that bad, considering the alternative. Happy Birthday.
Matthew B.
con·sump·tive adjective
1 : tending to consume
2 : of, relating to, or affected with consumption
Rex Everything
@arguingwithsignposts: That’s extremely clever and unlike anything I’ve ever read before, but I think you must have me confused with somebody else.
Bob
Being Freddie can’t be a lot of fun.
Amir Khalid
@Matthew B.:
Drat. Now I’ll have to turn in my know-it-all credentials.
danielx
OT but too good.
That 27% number comes up…again.
Tone in DC
@Zapruder F. Mashtots, D.D.S. (Mumphrey, et al.):
Thank you for your perspicacity and assiduousness.
arguingwithsignposts
@Rex Everything: My apologies. It’s hard to keep all the FPer stalkers straight these days. We need a scorecard or something.
chopper
@Suffern ACE:
in the future, the smart watch will include a ‘colonoscopy feature’.
chopper
@MikeJ:
i know. i’m taking the piss out of mr. fossil and his ‘superwatch’.
Debbie(aussie)
@Amir Khalid:
http://m.dictionary.com/definition/consumption/?linkId=ibc5yn
Sorry, this is way the dictionary says :)
Rex Everything
@arguingwithsignposts: I’m the one who doesn’t particularly stalk anyone but tends to defend those various Internet personages who are seen as fatuously “earnest,” “pure,” “morally superior,” etc.
chopper
did you ‘outgrow’ the worry over what rampant consumption has done to the planet?
Keith
Anyone else remember when Microsoft released Spot watches early last decade? Really uninterested then, and still uninterested now.
liberal
@evap:
Absolutely.
My wife is 8 years younger than me, and I occasionally will ask, “Why do you care what other people think?”
Rex Everything
@chopper: YOU ARE SO IMMATURE SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP don’t you know that even owning/using a computer is morally equivalent to $updating$ every time a shiny new gizmo is introduced, hypocrite? Grow up, chill out, get a life, fuck you, relax man! <good natured ribbing
YellowJournalism
Well, then, Happy Birthday to you, mistermix! Ten more years until you’re officially assigned to your Obamacare death panel. Enjoy!
scott
Jesus, defensive much? A guy writes an article wondering how weird it is to be told that WE WILL ALL WEAR SMARTWATCHES!!!, and i guess you’re angry that he wondered about it. Party on, crankypants!
Amir Khalid
@Debbie(aussie):
Pout.
liberal
IMHO what really “ages” you isn’t so much time as having kids.
Christ, mine aren’t even four yet, and due to lack of sleep I’m sure I’m a lot closer to the grave than before.
Still, yah gotta love the little rascals.
Marc
@Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Cardinal mistermix: You missed the best Freddie post, where he shares his life-altering experience riding the Greyhound bus and confesses that he “just wasn’t strong enough” because he couldn’t make himself empathize with the bros a couple of seats behind him.
Because the most important thing is always the purity of our heart, the tooth-gnashing and shirt-rending over whether we are, emotionally, strong enough, the public demonstration of our capacity for empathy. Not, mind you, the actual exercise of such empathy.
different-church-lady
Well look, usually I find Freddie a pedantic bore, but that “not much going on emotionally” line was one of the best sarc-slams I’ve read in the past six months. I mean, we’re moving towards Peircian there.
Seriously people: food, water, shelter. Everything else is luxury. Fuck, for some people in the world clean water is a luxury. As they say to repeat champions, “Act like you’ve been there.”
Cassidy
@different-church-lady: Heard on the radio this monring that more people have access ot cell phones than to running toilets. Of course it was a morring show that didn’t delve into the details, but I thought it was interesting.
different-church-lady
And while I’m riled a bit… remember that Time article about “How Twitter will change everything!!!!” a few years back? Well, yeah, it changed everything. It made everything even shittier than it used to be.
SiubhanDuinne
@arguingwithsignposts:
I was wondering whether it comes in a grandfatherly pocket watch style (the apps could be called “fobs” for that model).
Or perhaps those upside-down-pin-it-on-your-bosom watches that nurses used to wear.
satby
Happy Birthday Mistermix (and Doug too, evidently). As an even older old, I gotta say that life has been really enjoyable past 50. The slower metabolism thing sux, but is made up for by the freedom not to give a shite about what people think of your choices. And the kids are out of the nest (for me anyway) and that drops what feels like 10 years off your age anyway. You can go places and do things and not really have to worry about being home for anyone (unless of course you rescue animals like I do, then it’s still an 8 hour window of freedom).
Ash Can
Happy birthday, mistermix, and happy birthday to DougJ too when that time comes.
And don’t worry about the colonoscopy; it’s a snap. Even the prep wasn’t as bad as everyone kept telling me it was. If you don’t mind Gatorade, you won’t mind the prep solution.
different-church-lady
@Woodrow/asim Jarvis Hill:
Ohmyfuckinggodjustkillmenow…
Joel (Macho Man Randy Savage)
Freddy declares it in a totally dickish manner, but I do agree that there’s pretty much no way I’m buying a smart watch.
Valdivia
Happy birthday Mistermix.
I started using FitBit before my toe injury and found it a fabulous way of getting feedback on how active my lifestyle is and how much i need to change to reach my health goals. One reason I am so so annoyed with the toe situation is not being able to walk at all.
gnomedad
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Cardinal mistermix
@Marc: I didn’t write about it but I did read it, and that’s why Freddie commenting on the emotional life of others seemed a bit rich.
Palli
Here’s a question for American consumers: Would you choose not to purchase your latest technology plaything (sorry bias showing) if that would mean 20 people in the developing world could have a simple laptop and reliable internet coverage?
“Advertising is tax deductible, so we all pay for the privilege of being manipulated and controlled.” Noam Chomsky
Freddie deBoer
I would feel a lot less certain about this stuff if people didn’t flip the fuck out when you criticize their gadgets. Read this comments thread! People are insanely sensitive about their beeping pieces of plastic.
gnomedad
We’re all (well, most of us) carrying around information appliances (that’s what a watch is), and the wrist is a natural and traditional place to put said devices once the technology is adequate. So of course we’ll eventually be wearing smart watches. If you’re boycotting information appliances in general, that’s another story.
Also, I like the idea presented in the article of smart watches as a less obtrusive alternative to Google Glasses; I rather hope e-etiquette evolves this way. Maybe you’ll be allowed to pop on your Google Goggles when you’re walking around looking for something.
Ben Cisco
Welcome to the 50 Club – I’m told the colonoscopy is the official initiation though (I’m not particularly looking forward to that, though).
Ben Cisco
OT to Yutsano: Thanks for your kind words the other night. I was unable to get back to you that night, but wanted to make sure you saw this.
SatanicPanic
Why call it a watch? Call it a smart bracelet, make it look like a bracelet with a screen on it, and I might wear it.
Dave S.
@R-Jud: Another whimsical name: Freddie de Boer.
Cassidy
@Freddie deBoer:
Then you must get terrified when a bulb blows if you consider this thread flipping out. By BJ standards, this ain’t shit. Don’t go outside, that breeze is BLOWING LIKE HELL!!!!!
priscianus jr
“I did outgrow the worry over what others are consuming, how consumption enforces conformity … a long time ago. Human beings are really a silly bunch, and they always will be, and if that causes you to mourn rather than chuckle, your journey from Pampers to Depends is going to seem like a fucking eternity”
Your argument sounds remarkably like the rationales I’ve been reading for why the media supported the Iraq War.
Omnes Omnibus
@Freddie deBoer: It is the flip side of the people who take pride in bragging that they do not own a TV. Bragging about how unmaterialistic one is is just as silly and unattractive. It contains an unmistakable aura of condescension. Was your piece free of this? I would say no.
Redshirt
Free your mind! Throw away your watches! They steal your inner clock!
Seriously, if you value having a semi-accurate inner clock (in that you can correctly estimate passages of time), lose the watch. It kills this ability.
GPS too!
Higgs Boson's Mate
Happy birthday, mistermix. And thanks for giving us the gift of a faster site.
I don’t have a smartphone so I won’t have a smartwatch. I’m smart enough, dammit.
different-church-lady
@Omnes Omnibus: You appear to have missed his penultimate paragraph:
Mnemosyne
@Cassidy:
IIRC, a lot of developing countries in Africa have good cell tower infrastructure because building cell towers is much, much cheaper than stringing wires all over the place, so I can completely believe that a lot of people in developing countries have better access to cell phones than to running toilets or clean water.
Nokia developed a bicycle-powered cell phone charger a few years ago. Obviously, nerdy bicyclists in the West loved the idea, but it was primarily invented for developing countries where people have cell phones but not a lot of other technology.
Mnemosyne
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
I freely admit, I love my iPhone. When TCM was on in the tavern last night and we were trying to figure out who a particular character actor was in Edison the Man, I was able to pull up the IMDb app and say, “Yep, that’s Felix Bressart, all right.”
This may not be vitally important to normal people, but when you’re a film major married to a film major, these are major topics of conversation that need to be resolved right away. ;-)
Omnes Omnibus
@different-church-lady: Fuck. Mea culpa.
Rex Everything
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s the flip side of something, anyway. There is a certain section of the population who will manage to hear ANY reference to non-TV ownership as “bragging” and “taking pride”; in every case it says more about them, and their discomfort in relation to their own values, than it does about the non-TV owner.
Larkspur
I just can’t afford this stuff. No judgment on anyone. Circumstances, sketchy choices, weird luck, it’s just the way it is. My consumptive choices tend to be food, rent, gas, electricity, and the occasional bottle of Two-Buck Chuck. It is absolutely not tragic.
But I’ll tell you what: getting out of phase with tech developments makes you virtually incompetent in a hurry. Even with cars. I drive a 1988 Honda Civic. Cars today look like spaceships to me. I’d probably have to go back to drivers’ ed to operate one.
Short Bus Bully
I’m late to the party with no gift, as is par for the course around these parts, but happy fucking birthday!
That’s it, no witty shit to follow. Caffeine hasn’t kicked in yet…
Redshirt
@Larkspur: I used to drive an 88 Honda Civic. Loved the little thing. Tragically stolen and stripped mere days after we all came together as a nation after 9/11.
eemom
Welcome to 5-0, Mix.
It’s not too bad, really. Only sorta sucks when someone asks how old you are, and you gotta say the word. Fifty.
Omnes Omnibus
@Rex Everything: I was speaking specifically of people who post on blog threads about, let’s say, Downton Abbey that they have not seen it and will not see it since they haven’t owned a TV or watched a TV show since 1987.
Zapruder F. Mashtots, D.D.S. (Mumphrey, et al.)
@Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Cardinal mistermix:
I’d like to bring up that when my name got too long, people began whining. ¿Do you have to be a front pager to get to have a name that long without anyboidy hassling you? If so, then, ¡sign me up!
Larkspur
@Redshirt: Damn. I’m going to talk real nice to my car today. It’s been good to me. It’s not so pretty any more, but it is a sturdy little work horse.
Oh, also, happy birthday to everyone who is having one today.
Yutsano
@Ben Cisco: You are most welcome Emissary. I did a check-up on you in a later thread but it was long after its time had passed, but do keep us informed.
different-church-lady
@Larkspur: You and me both. There is nothing like financial decline and stress to deplete a person’s tolerance for the bleatings of first world gadgetheads. That little rock thing y’all are squabbling about costs about the same as a month’s heat. And I ain’t earning enough to pay for a month’s heat anymore, so I don’t give a shit about the horrible inconvenience of having to actually MOVE MY ARM to see trivial bullshit dance across a screen when I’m huddled up in the bedroom in a sleeping bag next to the space heater sending out resumes to everyone I can think of.
I mean, when I’m president, dope slaps all around, frequently.
Cassidy
@different-church-lady: I hope things turn up. I’ve been poor as well and for the first time in my life, I can do the things for my kids that I always wanted to do. But things will turn up. If someone will hire me, I’m sure you’ll get a bite soon.
different-church-lady
@Cassidy: My advice to folks is try to appreciate the upswings as much as possible when they happen. Don’t take them for granted. I’m very glad I had fun within my means when the money was there. Because if I hadn’t, I’d be feeling a thousand times worse right now.
And I don’t want too much sympathy — I still have a lot more means than many in our country. I’m just taking drastic steps now instead of waiting for my debt to become unmanageable and my savings to disappear entirely.
Quicksand
@Freddie deBoer:
Well, mine is all glass and precision-machined aluminum.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@lojasmo: Neat. Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
West of the Rockies
@RP: It’s sentences like this that may lead to that opinion: “What is to be argued here is not that there are relative merits to wearing a smartwatch which the reader might be convinced of, leading, if he or she has the means, to a purchase.”
brantl
And yet, we’ve all been lead to believe that conspicuously wasteful consumption is a bad thing…. We should have listened to the all-knowing Mistermix, if we just didn’t become annoyed by it, it would have no ill effects.. What a concept!
Winston Smith
I have to heartily disagree with Freddie when he dismisses the inconvenience of checking a text message on a phone versus a watch.
Checking a text message on my phone requires me to get it out of my pocket (not easy when I’m sitting down), unlocking the screen, opening the text message app and picking the “conversation” with the new message.
Yes, a different app (perhaps one with a desktop widget) could simplify the tail end of that, but it’s not comparable to “glancing at a watch.”
The prophet Nostradumbass
Have you filled out your AARP membership form yet, mistermix?
efroh
Happy B-Day mistermix, health and happiness always and xronia polla as the Greeks say. Please post a review of your Pebble if you’re feeling up to it. I stopped wearing a watch, because I carry so many devices that tell me the time, but maybe I should start up again.
Anne Laurie
Happy belated birthday, MisterMix.
If it’s any consolation, remember you’ll always be younger than me… and Sarah P&T, also!
different-church-lady
@Winston Smith: Because lord fuckin’ knows that four seconds between you and the words, “Dude, whr r u?” on you screen are so critical.
I’d love to see your description of getting out of bed in the morning: “I have to open your eyes, and then pull the covers back, and then I have to swing my legs around while simultaneously using my abdominal muscles to bring my upper torso upright, and by the the time I’ve actually put my feet on the floor half the day is gone…”
West of the Rockies
@different-church-lady: Oh, those last words! They are a flashback of my older sister explaining (as a teenager) why it was taking her so long to peel potatoes: “I have to bend over and pick up the bag of potatoes, I have to carry them to the counter, I have to open them, I have to reach in and select some potatoes…” Minutes later, my parents almost felt sorry for her. Almost.
Mnemosyne
@Redshirt:
My 1987 Toyota Celica met the same fate, but sooner (in 1995). They found her stripped husk in downtown LA and I sold the scrap for $100.
I still miss that car.
Gus
It already has, and I’m two years younger than you.
Ruckus
@different-church-lady:
This is very good advice.
30-40 yrs ago a decent job was considered a career because unless you screwed up you probably could keep it for 30-40 yrs. Who thinks that anymore? Even if you are good at it and a hard worker there is very little job security anymore. Now we have to plan for the in between and lean times, jobs that don’t pay a living wage. Or that a good hourly wage is only actually keeping up with what the minimum wage was 50 yrs ago.
Rex Everything
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yeah—where is the bragging or pride in their statement? It’s inferred. By you.
FlyingToaster
@Gindy51: My colonoscopy was about 2 years ago; HerrDoktor’s was a year and a half ago.
Though they shortened it to 2 days when he had abdominal surgery last fall; one day of white bread and jello, and one day of clear liquids and a pint of “stuff”.
Ben Franklin
@Omnes Omnibus:
It is the flip side of the people who take pride in bragging that they do not own a TV.
Yes, I’ve seen the arrogance of ignoramuses. The same side of that flip finds those who take pride in not reading the works of those they consider verklempt.
It’s a point of pride to be blissfully igorant.(sic)
E
I have a dumb phone, a smart tablet, and my life is driven by email. I cannot say these gadgets make me a happier person and I am pretty sure I would not be a happier person if I got any new ones.
But like everyone else, I am a slave to the sweep of history, and could not keep my job without them.
I agree with chopper though. If these gadgets make you happy, good for you, but at least try to remember they are not benign to the earth.