私の生きた証拠

This is a tough question, given that I recently got myself a practically brand-new computer rig (with almost-the-latest technology). And seeing blue patches on my 17″ LCD makes me feel very sad. Of course I’d like to get a new one, but something’s holding me back.

Anyway back to question. I’ve been for some time at least nominally anti-consumerist (with my sincere semi-Marxist exclamations and remarks as proof), but looking at the iPod Touches my classmates are carrying around does make me feel a little inadequate and somewhat sad. After all, I’d like to be able to read ebooks on the go, but that demand itself is I believe a manifestation of consumerist tendencies. And of late I’ve been pretty dissatisfied with my phone, since the screen’s like tiny (and the resolution’s low), and there’s no Japanese input (which annoys me to no end). All these subconscious inclinations are forcing me to re-evaluate my supposedly anti-consumerist standpoint.

I’ve been criticised for overconsumption by people I know for some time, particularly with regards to my semi-indiscriminate purchase of seiyuu magazines at extremely marked-up prices from Kinokuniya bookstore in Singapore. For the record, I now buy only about half the issues, given that there seems to be an annoying trend towards putting pictures of people I don’t care for or positively dislike on the cover (people like Miyano Mamoru and Fukuyama Jun - for goodness’ sake I’m NOT spending 23.40 to see a MALE on the cover), as well as the deliberate neglect of people I am keen to see coverage on (Ayako-sama, for example). This results in my going to Kinokuniya, and after a quick scan of the cover’s details on the contents I make a decision to buy or not to instantly based on one criterion - whether there’s coverage on Ayako-sama. If there is, I buy without hesitation. If there isn’t, 70-80% of the time I won’t buy it. Since it’s come to this, my consumption in this respect has dropped considerably, and I can almost hear the sigh of relief from my poor bookshelf (which I don’t really like due to its most irritating open design). On other fronts, such as purchase of books that I usually do but sometimes don’t read, all I have to say to my critics is this - my purchases generally reflect my interest (or obsession, if you insist) on educating myself and staying cultured. For example, I would say that reading Niall Ferguson (who happens to be my favorite historian) trumps the reading of the far-cheaper Her World and Simply Her magazines. (Actually this is a veiled jab at someone, but whoever it is doesn’t read my blog, so it’s most likely not a personal attack on anyone who reads this.)

But enough said. I need to get started on Summer Days. Though it isn’t summer yet. But heck.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 10th, 2008 at 1:42 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.