Saturday, December 2, 2017

Want to feel good about your holiday purchases?

Find an end-user that will appreciate your leftovers.  For me, this was my aunt and uncle's old Canon Digital Rebels.  I was lucky enough to play with them for years, when they upgraded.  I became a photographer (amateur, admittedly) because I happened to have good equipment.  I can't tell you how much this has affected my life.  However, not everyone has a niece or nephew to support.  Instead, rather than selling old things on the internet, I'd advocate giving these things to people in your community who will use them well.  That same old digital rebel has been used by countless students, the kids of a few different girlfriends now, and a few others.  I guess this is the heart of my "hoarder communism."   I want to see my things go to places where they are appreciated and used.  I don't want to have people haggle over them at a tag sale, or bid low for them on Ebay or Craigslist.  If you remove the money component, it's easier to get rid of things.  Appreciation is far better currency. 

Not everybody can afford to do this, so I suppose my privilege is showing.  However, since I can afford it, I choose to when I can.  The hard part is connecting people with the things that they need or want badly, so that their appreciation will show.  I suppose if I was truly altruistic I wouldn't need the appreciation, but it seems to help motivate me to give. 

At any rate, I hope you find ways to give, and if you have old tech, I'd love to help you give it to a student in Hartford that could surely use it.  Old cell phones, computers and tablets (especially laptops), even with broken screens and other issues, are usable for kids who don't have any tech.  I just put linux on them, speed them up with #debian or #ubuntu, and the gratitude flows (as well as the performance of those students, who now have a way to word process and do internet research). 

Have a great holiday!

Mark

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