Am I becoming too picky?

I ask this question because I’m really not altogether sure how I am viewed by other (mainly younger) people. Perhaps I’m turning into the proverbial grumpy old man, not that anyone has said so. Except my wife, who tells me I am very intolerant, but I think I’ve always been so; maybe now I’m expressing myself in a less inhibited way than the younger version of me did.

I do like nice things, although, mostly these days, I can’t afford them, and I sometimes feel very let-down by things I see around me. Sometimes it’s the quality of something I’ve bought or it’s what the description of the article didn’t say; so it really doesn’t work with the thing I specifically bought it to work with and sometimes it just the people who provide me with (or not provide me with) the kind of service I expect. For example: If you go into a fast food outlet, the picture of the food displayed on the menu doesn’t look anything like the fast food that appears before you; sometimes it’s not fast either. But that’s another moan. Oh no, I am moaning now! The product on the plate is never fresher, larger or cheaper than the object on display.

The purchase of something which “Should last a lifetime” usually means until its warranty expires or it becomes obsolete and nothing will work with it anymore. Manufacturers selling ‘the latest’ technology, when they clearly know by the time you get it home, take it out of the box and get it working, are guilty of breaking some unwritten moral law which we could call deliberate fraud, were we grumpy enough. There has been too many instances in my lifetime to recount here but specifically I was the one who bought a Sega Saturn games consul and rubbished the Sony Play Station encouraged by a so-called ‘expert’ who told me that as Sega made all the games the Sony would fail. Sega still do make the games but mainly for the Play Station version 150 or something now. Luckily my fingers speed is now so slow that a game of solitaire on the laptop suffices.

The TV dilemma is always worth following; if I buy and LCD will it be better than a LED? What’s the difference and should I really care? All I want is that it comes on when I press the on button, stays on as long as I want to watch it and shows me a true image of what it should. It would be nice if it lasted forever too and constantly morfed into the latest model, with all its upgrades and improvements, automatically and at no extra cost. Ok maybe that’s a bit extreme but it would be a nice thought. Of course I can add to that question should it have Freeview or Freesat built-in or should I purchase Sky or Cable to go with it? What about a HD or Blu-ray player? I think that decision is another Sega Saturn/Sony Play station syndrome so I might just take some advice on that!

So I suppose I ask the question of you; am I becoming too picky?