Letters from North
America
Why
buy it, if you can’t use
it?
If you’re like me,
sometimes you buy things
without really thinking
about them beforehand.
I’ve got shirts that I
thought were fantastic
at the store and then
when I get them home or
out in the sunshine I
discovered that I hated
them. I’ve bought books
based upon the
description on the back
or how appealing the
cover art was only to
find out the story was a
dud and the book was
totally unable to read.
Having said all of that,
I think the thing that
galls me the most is
buying things I can’t
use or don’t need.
Perhaps I need to
rephrase that, things I
will never use, for any
reason.
Take cameras for
instance. Several years
ago when digital cameras
came on the market I
bought one of the first
ones. It had several
million (zillion?)
mega-pixels or something
which assured me that
the photographs were
going be first quality.
These could be enlarged
to fit a billboard if
need be. Not that I
would ever want to have
something enlarged this
size, but I felt better
knowing I had a lot of
capacity if I ever
wanted it. The only
problem for me was that
this was not a point and
click type of a camera.
No, it has or had, until
I gave it away, more
buttons than I could
count along with an
instruction book that
weighed in about three
pounds. Needless to say,
I kept looking for
something smaller and
more practical for my
needs. Something that
did not take me twenty
minutes to figure out
how to set before I
could take a photo… so
much for ‘snap’ shots.
The other day I loaded a
CD into my stereo. It
jammed and wouldn’t
play. I worked on it for
about two hours before I
gave up and called a
repair shop to see if it
could be fixed. They
told me the minimum
charge for something
along this line would be
$100. I took the thing
apart and couldn’t find
the problem. So I put
everything in the trunk
of my car fully
intending to drop it off
at the repair shop in a
day or so. In the
meantime I looked at new
units on the internet
and found exactly what I
wanted for $125, brand
new. Now the new one
sounds as good as the
old one to me but the
best thing is that I
don’t have another
thirty or so buttons to
adjust to get the sound
‘equalized’ or to move
from rock to arena to
movie to room effects,
whatever that means.
Also if I need to adjust
the clock on the new
one, the buttons are
easier to see and I
don’t need a magnifying
glass to tell me which
one I need to punch to
adjust the setting. My
life just got easier.
How about your cell
phone? I use mine for
texting, talking, photos
and e-mail. I don’t need
it to tell me the
weather in Moscow
because I don’t need to
know what the weather is
in Moscow. I don’t need
it to make funny noises
or calculate the amount
to add for a tip on a
meal, I can do that in
my head. I still carry
the instruction manual
for my phone and my
camera (the simple one)
in my briefcase, but
even that seems rather
stupid to me, but I
can’t be perfect.
Take a look at the
appliances in your home
today. Who needs forty
different settings to
cook biscuits? I don’t.
I need an oven that can
bake and broil and a
microwave with an on/off
and minute
timer…everything else is
superfluous ( I love
that word).
Finally, we come to the
mother of all buttons
for things we’ll never
use… and that’s our
computers. I have 24 of
those little icons on my
screen saver when I open
up my computer. I think
I use a total of 4. I’ve
looked at all of the
programs that are
installed and I have no
clue what they are or
how they got there in
the first place. I have
things labeled Panorama
Maker, Sonic and Modem
on Hold. I haven’t the
slightest idea of what
these are used for. I am
loathe to erase them as
I did this once a year
or so ago and one of
them must have been used
for something important
that I didn’t know
about. Once I hit the
old ‘erase’ now
button….everything
stopped working. I had
to get an expert (at
least he said he was)
out to get me up and
going again. My motto is
not to mess with it if
it seems to be working.
Make it simpler, seems
to be a good plan for
this New Year. Out with
the old…in with the
new….only if it has less
buttons and settings.
Comments got to
www.pearyperry.com.
Complaints go nowhere.
