[Skybird]

I have a hair/beard trimmer with accu-batteries which cannot be replaced. the motor and the blades are still working like on first day (5 years ago), but the accus are dead. I need to replace the whole device because the batteries not being replacable. Most hair trimmers, if not all, are like that. throwing a fully functional device into the bin - for nothing. Stupid.

I still have the WM1 by Sony, the very first walkman ever available on the market, that was in 1982 or 83. Full metal case, solid manufacturing, very good and robust quality. It still works very well. Two other walkman me and my parents tried in later years were made of plastic, were light like TT-balls, and didn't live very long.

My parents also happen to own the first disc player by Sony from the mid-80s, still fully functionable, and the size of a discman. Again, solid manufacturing, metal case, and quite some weight.

If you look at devices today you fear to brake them by simply pressing the play-button.

I am extremely hesitent to buy HD-TV. If the picture is not received as an HD-signal, then LCD -TV simply have a terrible picture quality, compared to classical cathode-ray monitors. And the two major TV stations in Germany still wait to invest into HD-technology. they got burned twice in the past, with PAL+ and some other norm that was said to be the future, and then died. I also think the prices for these things are ridiculous, even more so if considering the constantly shrinking lifespan of consumer elctronics today. You pay more and more money for gimmicks you never missed before, and constantly detoriating quality (time to break-down).

I don't like all this. It stinks. I am still operating a VHs alongside a DVD player, I plan to avoid HD as long as possible, and will try to get a classical cathode-widescreen TV next time (which is becoming difficult for many screen-sizes, unfortunately). Major parts of my music librarary still are cassettes, and I feel lucky for having used quality tapes back then. Newer does not mean better today. In the majority of cases I think it is exactly the other way around. But of course, life is becoming faster and faster nevertheless. that's why more and more people becoming ill from living the modenr life.

It seems to me there is only one thing a reasonable man can do these days: find something that is his own, and detach his life from the growing madness and hectic all around. I feel thankful towards life, for having been able to do so. It comes at a price (some ammount of isolation, caused by lacking understanding of most others), but it still is a fair deal and a positive bilance. Else I would live in constant anger, and at the end of each day I would leave a smoking battlefield behind me.