One (inner) complaint I have always had about many of my fellow Americans is their propensity to consume. By that, I do mean the materialistic desire to buy/acquire things… but mostly their apparent need to define their identity or individuality based upon what they consume (what music they buy, movies they see, clothes they wear, car they drive, teams whose games they watch). One would think that the content of one’s character, their personal history, ethnicity, geneaology and personal quirks are what set individuals apart from one another. Not to sound *too* much like a geeky-nerd, but the erosion of this more traditional method of setting oneself apart from another is probably the greatest triumph that advertisers and manufacturers of goods could ever hope to attain.

That being said, I very recently made two very frivolous purchases for two things that I probably won’t even have much time to enjoy (guilty as charged!)… though the reasons that I bought them were a little different than a psychologically-driven urge to consume. I got them at really good prices! (That sounds pretty lame, doesn’t it).

My first purchase was that of a ping-pong table (picture is forthcoming)! I was browsing a GT newsgroup where students post ads of things for sale when I saw that someone was selling their full-size (9’x5′) ping-pong table for $50, complete with paddles, net, and two ping pong balls. Any way you slice it that’s a good deal. I arranged to purchase them (easy) and somehow through provenient grace arranged to borrow a pick up truck to transport it (difficult and time-consuming). Here’s the embarrassing part… there isn’t any room in the townhouse where I live for a ping-pong table! There might be except for the fact that there are 2-3 extraneous pieces of furniture in the dining room that nooone uses. As a result, I transported my new ping-pong table to the parents’ lounge in the gym, where it will hopefully keep siblings of students off the floor. I plan to provide paddles and sell ping-pong balls (to cover costs of people stepping on them) so that the table will get use. Reed and I played a game after work the night I put it up there. He’s a big ping-pong fan (and pretty good), so I’m sure that I’ll get to use the table regularly after work should I wish to.

My second purchase is even more frivolous than the first. After subsequently browsing the same GT newsgroup, I arranged to buy a pair of snow skis. It is important to note that I have been skiing the grand total of ONE time in my entire life. However, I have turned down invitations to end-of-year skiing outings and trips due to the cost and lack-of-equipment. I still need boots, poles, and the appropriate pants in order to ski… so for now they will sit in the downstairs closet. The skis I bought are a pair of 195cm Rossignol M46 ‘racing’ skis. I got them for $12. It is true that I have no current use for them, but I couldn’t pass them up at that price! Apparently, the guy I bought them from got them second-hand from a shop/store somewhere. The edges are in decent shape (according to my roommate, who just got back from a ski trip), save a light layer of rust over. Also, the edges do just out past the width of the rest of the skis, so they can still be sharpened. My roommate also said that the bottom surface was in good shape, which made me happy. Maybe I’ll get to use them one day. If I’d already had ski’s a few months ago, then I might have been able to take my friend Sarah Burgoyne-Carl up on her offer to go skiing with her in Colorado where she was living at the time. Pity!

Anyways, here’s to hoping I can curb my spending until after I raise the $$ for the GRE 🙂
Here are pictures of the skis and the ping-pong table.