Stimulus Package

It's good for the economy!

When the overgrown local gossip rag we like to call the SF Chronicle did a feature on the dip in HDTV prices, I finally had a look and found that a position had opened up for an HDTV in my household. I picked this (Sony 50" WEGA SXRD -- yes, it's 1080p) up on Superbowl Sunday with the help of Lumberjack, setting it up just in time to watch the most honorable and exhalted artist formerly-and-then-currently known as Prince do the half-time show, singing Purple Rain with, indeed, little rain drops glistening purple from the stage lighting during the 1080i broadcast.

I think I need to explain myself. Ask anybody and you'll know that my spending habits are hardly stingy. But when it comes to the big ticket items I'm pretty level-headed -- I don't get any kind of high from buying big toys. Frankly it causes me as much anxiety as exuberance, because I really do worry if I've made the right choice when I buy something hideously expensive.

Given the habits over the last few months, though, you wouldn't think so. Since September, I've picked up a new Macbook, a new mattress (not cheap!), a Wii + games and extra controllers, lots of games and DVDs (slightly above normal), a video iPod, and now this. There's probably a lot of odds and ends I've forgotten about. I've also picked up a lot of home improvement stuff, for example.

The knee-jerk diagnosis for all of this would be some strain of fractional-life crisis, of course. I suppose some of that's always at least somewhat true -- I don't think I've been sure of most of the things I've done in my life since Jr. High. But still, yes, it's worth wondering if that's what this is ultimately all about.

On the other hand, though, you could look at actual facts and numbers. Like the fact that the last laptop I had was a PB 1400 that's been boxed up for 6 years now. And that the TV I had strained my eyes and is 5 years old. That I didn't pick up my PS2 or Xbox until prices had dropped precipitously 2-3 years after their initial release. That my mattress predated my residency with Lumberjack back over in Albany in 2000. That I'm spending about 1.5 - 2 hours a day commuting, downtime that goes by much faster with a quick round of Advance Wars DS or an episode of Heroes.

It's a convergence in the upgrade cycle, is what I'm suggesting. With a lot of these technologies finally hitting maturity and concurrently dropping in price, it seemed like the reasonable thing to do. I'm not dipping into credit debt at all for this -- it's all been paid off, my saving's still building up, and I expect to finish paying off my X within two months, over a year-and-a-half early.

That said, I think I can set some indicators for me to watch out for. Generally if I start buying unproven next-gen stuff like a blu-ray or an HD-DVD player, another console when I barely have enough time for my Wii, an SLR without advancing in photography or enrolling in a class for the same, or even something relatively justifiable like buying a new hybrid when I don't commute to work and my recreational driving tends to be long-distance highway, or an iPhone when I barely use the cell phone I have and save my Macbook for long trips.

I may be a consumer whore, but I'm picky about my clients.