You ever look at something and compare it to its counterpart and then you realise that it wasn't just your parents' day when "the old things were way better than the new things" and then had a little melt-down?
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| Bought at - Dick Smith Electronics |
I was using this for a quick spruce-up before going to a consult with my GP. It's sort of become my go-to several times a week because it's by my seat in the lounge room, where I write these posts, watch TV and generally lounge with my wife, do research, try to write code, and anything else I don't need the tiny cramped workshop for.
And I thought "geez, it's getting a bit worn-looking, I should find another contingency shaver, after all, it's . . . ummm . . . It's - ermagerdferkmi, it's OVER TWENTY YEARS OLD!"
I remember when I bought it, late 90s (or maybe early in 2000) from a Dick Smith Electronics store in Fremantle, on the way to a quick s/w upgrade job for a client. And it kind of stayed in my backpack or the glovebox, or these days, close to my PC, for those times that I had to spruce up a bit before seeing a client.
And I still use this hunk of cheap plastic and steel every few days just to clean up the odd patches of stubble that slip by my other two name-brand shavers, one a few years older than the DSE ShaveMan, the other only about four years old. It's just that good even after all this time.
To be fair, it only sees use for a few minutes, a few times a week, but that's still a pretty impressive inning for a plastic, lowest-bid-wins, made by a subcontractor of a subcontractor to an Asian exporter that arrived here after all the markups piece of crap that was probably meant to be thrown away - and it cost just five bucks back then. I'd be hard pressed to find a similarly durable piece of kit for the equivalent price (which would be, what, $10, $11 in equivalent terms?) today, despite advances in manufacturing and materials.
Not saying stuff is flimsier today (although it is) or that the latter half of last century was better (although I reckon it was) but I reckon inflation's affected more than just the world's currencies, it's also inflated greed. Maybe the hippies were right.
This Is The End
... of this article. But it's nowhere near the end for me. It takes several days to find a topic to write about, properly research it, and then write and schedule it. Even articles as crappy as this one need me to try and find receipts or at least sit and marshall memories and check inflation rates for the last 25 years. I don't have any assistance and I don't have the kind of income that allows me to use a proofreading or scheduling service like established writers can. I also spend some of my limited pension on keeping servers and domain names going, more on parts for the R&D I do making the machines for recycling waste. You can help me by sharing this article or the link to the newsletter I put out, or more directly by making a Paypal donation here. Failing that you can also go to my Ko-Fi page and set up a monthly donation. (It's like Patreon without all the bullsh*t.) Everything you can do, will help me keep these blogs going.
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