Mud and Metal Mixing Good
Does a rat ask to stay in the maze? Does a prisoner deliberately miss his own parole hearing? Man must never stop questioning his environment. Today I am asking the question "why have I just decided to stay working here for an extra week?" So far the environment is quiet on the matter. It just sits there and buzzes.
Ye gods, what was I thinking? The answer comes at the bottom of a hastily-scrawled balance sheet that now sits forlornly in the bin. Money!
The way I figure it, another five days at the bottom of the food chain in this industrial eyesore will buy me a shiny, 28 inch widescreen television. I am normally left cold by spending money on such things…I get no comfort from the act, some say art, of shopping. I ask myself…is this going to improve my life to such an extent that I won't miss the money that's no longer in my account? But the question is absurd. The figure that is my account balance is an abstract thing and I feel no better or worse how much the needle swings from black to red and back again. Hmm…there's a roulette analogy in there somewhere….but I am not a gambler, at least not for high stakes. In the universal game of poker, I'm the one who calls.
However, this television would be a symbol; I will be moving into a new flat very soon and want to put my past relationship with bad technology behind.
Recently, I have been getting by on a scrapheap of defective equipment that gasps for breath and wonders every morning whether it's worth waking up at all. The last three CD players I have owned have all been hopeless and skipped around a disc like a goddamn Morris dance; during the time I reviewed new music for a university newspaper, I remember ploughing through an album by a group called Pan Sonic. Their forte was art installation-style music. Half way through the disc the CD player gave up, getting stuck and beeping and hissing as it failed to play. Such was the nature of the music, I didn't notice for 10 minutes. I reviewed the album accordingly.
And I have just replaced the guts of my PC after becoming so frustrated with the damn thing overheating that I attacked the processor with a screwdriver. I am comfortable with operating technology and don't stress easily…but what chance do I have when the technology goes out of its way to spend its days shedding functionality, the scientific equivalent of a moulting Red Setter?
I can no longer tolerate these things. I will buy good things that use cable types I've never even heard of. Purely because I hate the anxiety and sense of depression that comes with a cheap and nasty pile of junk. I want to know that the damn thing won't spit out a circuit after three months and start emitting a high pitched whine, something guaranteed to be unfixable without replacing the entire unit.
The prestige of the technology does not interest me…anyone who buys one of those absurd and monstrous American-style fridges with built-in ice-maker, holes them up in some tiny kitchen in a mid-London studio flat and then sits back to bask in their friend's admiration… well, to hell with them. They are idiots and have forfeited their right to come near society without being hit on the head with a chair. Same goes for anyone who spends that extra £50 or so just to get the biggest, most unnecessary hard drive for their poxy portable mp3 jukebox.
So I feel I can justify buying this television. It's a health thing, damn it… when I own that beast the stress will just melt away. So yeah, on reflection I think I may be needing that extra week's pay.
Ye gods, what was I thinking? The answer comes at the bottom of a hastily-scrawled balance sheet that now sits forlornly in the bin. Money!
The way I figure it, another five days at the bottom of the food chain in this industrial eyesore will buy me a shiny, 28 inch widescreen television. I am normally left cold by spending money on such things…I get no comfort from the act, some say art, of shopping. I ask myself…is this going to improve my life to such an extent that I won't miss the money that's no longer in my account? But the question is absurd. The figure that is my account balance is an abstract thing and I feel no better or worse how much the needle swings from black to red and back again. Hmm…there's a roulette analogy in there somewhere….but I am not a gambler, at least not for high stakes. In the universal game of poker, I'm the one who calls.
However, this television would be a symbol; I will be moving into a new flat very soon and want to put my past relationship with bad technology behind.
Recently, I have been getting by on a scrapheap of defective equipment that gasps for breath and wonders every morning whether it's worth waking up at all. The last three CD players I have owned have all been hopeless and skipped around a disc like a goddamn Morris dance; during the time I reviewed new music for a university newspaper, I remember ploughing through an album by a group called Pan Sonic. Their forte was art installation-style music. Half way through the disc the CD player gave up, getting stuck and beeping and hissing as it failed to play. Such was the nature of the music, I didn't notice for 10 minutes. I reviewed the album accordingly.
And I have just replaced the guts of my PC after becoming so frustrated with the damn thing overheating that I attacked the processor with a screwdriver. I am comfortable with operating technology and don't stress easily…but what chance do I have when the technology goes out of its way to spend its days shedding functionality, the scientific equivalent of a moulting Red Setter?
I can no longer tolerate these things. I will buy good things that use cable types I've never even heard of. Purely because I hate the anxiety and sense of depression that comes with a cheap and nasty pile of junk. I want to know that the damn thing won't spit out a circuit after three months and start emitting a high pitched whine, something guaranteed to be unfixable without replacing the entire unit.
The prestige of the technology does not interest me…anyone who buys one of those absurd and monstrous American-style fridges with built-in ice-maker, holes them up in some tiny kitchen in a mid-London studio flat and then sits back to bask in their friend's admiration… well, to hell with them. They are idiots and have forfeited their right to come near society without being hit on the head with a chair. Same goes for anyone who spends that extra £50 or so just to get the biggest, most unnecessary hard drive for their poxy portable mp3 jukebox.
So I feel I can justify buying this television. It's a health thing, damn it… when I own that beast the stress will just melt away. So yeah, on reflection I think I may be needing that extra week's pay.
posted by Jamie at 4:14 PM
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