30 Days of Truth: Day 16

Day 16 → Someone or something you definitely could live without.

Huh. This is an awful lot like Day 10.  So I'll take the "something." 

This might be the time to tell you that, when I decided to do this, I didn't read down past the first week or so of prompts, so I have no idea of what I'm getting myself into anymore.  BUT I am doing a good job of posting daily--dude, this is my third post today!  I find any more blog fodder & Imma queue it up to auto-post tomorrow.

Something I could live without...Hmm...

There are a lot of things I could live without.  In a gigantic sense: the overwhelming commercialism of childhood (yes, I realize it's been going on at least as long as television has existed).  In a small sense: shoes.  I hate shoes.  Unless it's very very cold or I'm trying to get me some, I don't wear anything but sandals.  And even those I take off as much as I can.

So, how about something I have lived without?

I have these strange Luddite tendencies.  Quite plainly, I love my computer & the internet.  They're great friends to the introvert.

But...

I have a TV only over my objections.  Erik said we could watch DVDs on it. We've never so much as plugged it in; the DVD cables got lost during the move.  I have no self-control: if I have a working TV, it's on all the time and I watch way too much FoxNews and CMT.  So I prefer not to have one at all, because I really don't like TV.  I don't like the commercials that come with it.  Already, with listening to the radio, I am always having to explain to my daughters that commercials exist only to sell us stuff, and 99% of that is stuff we don't actually need.  (Srsly, when was the last time there was a commercial for, say, zucchini?)

Along with the lack of TV, we don't have any video games.  Never could afford them when I was a kid (I had my own TV, though!  13" black and white with the little dials you had to move!), and as an adult why would I get a TV gaming system when Baldur's Gate and Diablo were computer-only?  Sometimes I think a Wii might be nice to have, and then I realize how damned much it costs, and all the peripherals and games cost and I figure I could get a bunch of yarn for that price, and a few more Mel Brooks films.  Which I will watch on my computer.  Overall, I have next to no desire for a gaming system of any sort, and I'm not quite certain what to do with the hand-me-down V-Smile thingy my mother-in-law gave us for the girls.  (We totally lack hand-held gaming systems too.)

Shockingly for Erik's spouse, I have little use for the iPod.  I have one, mind you.  It's a 2nd Gen Nano, and is in the little plastic drawer-thingy I have all my needlecraft tools in.  I don't remember the last time I charged it.  Erik bought me a new set of earbuds for Christmas; I gave them to him to replace the ones of his that had split or something, 'cause those suckers are expensive and I don't care about my player enough to have him spend another $30 on his own set.

The other thing, and this probably makes me weirdest of all:  No microwave.  The next small appliance I buy will probably be a smaller slow-cooker (my mother gave us hers, but it is gigantic, and the smaller the better, with those) or else an immersion blender, 'cause I miss making smoothies.  Like the Wii, occasionally I think one of these would be nice, but honestly I far prefer popcorn made on the stove, even though it's more labor-intensive and what the hell else does one use a microwave for?

So, there you have it.  I can do without quite a few random trappings of modern civilization.