A brief breakdown
It really bothers me, my tendency to personify things.
Aside from giving human names to all manner of things, and talking to animals – two things I admittedly do quite often – I’ve also noticed that I’m now relating to electrical goods.
Not in a ‘tamagotchi funeral’ (great name for a band, right?) type of way, but rather I have developed some sort of loyalty towards the things that have served for me.
Take my kettle for example, about two years ago it developed a fault and the automatic switch that turns it off when the water eventually boils stopped working. By all rights I should have gone out and bought another one, but instead I find myself standing there, watching it and waiting for it to boil. That’s probably half-an hour of each day… I spend more time looking after my forgetful electrical friend (his name is Jeff by the way) than a lot people do for their elderly relatives.
The same goes for my television – when you wake it up, no matter how you left it, the volume always starts at maximum, screaming the news at me every morning… but then it’s quickly calmed down and in general behaves itself.
It is a bit like living in some sort of care home for elderly appliances.
The problem is that I can’t just throw these thing away, or replace them – by giving them a name in the first place I’ve invested, now matter how slightly, some of my emotion into them. They are more human, than they should be, and as such I can’t help but feel compelled to treat them as such.
And so I will continue to spend half an hour a day watching water boil and listening to the first ten seconds of the news at an abusive volume.
At least, that is, until they legalise the euthanasia of such things in about 2076.
I completely understand, I have a little battalion of MP3 players i cannot bear to throw out because they served me so well. They’re all scratched to hell and their hold buttons are bust but they are lined up, 64mb (in an old Nokia), 256mb, 512mb, 1gb and 2gb in my drawer. They salute me when I open it and I don’t think I will be rid of them until I come up with a plausible excuse to bury them at sea (with full military commendations).
I also have a Sega Master System II that watches me woefully while I sleep from the top of my wardrobe…
Perhaps this is the curse of being an 80s child?
I’d never thought of creating some sort of army out of them… nice work, soldier.
As for the 80s thing, you might be right, I mean, I think we were the last generation to be raised before the disposibility of electronic goods became common place…
…any 90s kids want to disagree with that?
I usually avoid throwing things out unless they’re completely broken, but that’s probably just me. After all, for most of my childhood, we had a TV that was about as old as I am (which was only recently replaced when my parents won an absolutely giant TV). The VCR was similar, except it almost completely broke a few years ago, and was only useful as an intermediary between the ancient TV and the new DVD player. Worked pretty well, in fact. Anyway, I think for a child of the late 80’s/90’s, I have a greater than usual need to not throw things out until I really need to. Then again, I might just take whatever it is apart and see if I can fix it (not likely) or scavenge something. Fun.
You know, I have a bad habit of anthropomorphizing my things as well. My car is named Jemimah, my mp3 player is Oscar ( because he grumbles every time I turn him on), etc. etc…
I am a child of the 90s I suppose. I was born in 85 but have done most of my living in the 90s and 2000s. I ,however, cannot bring myself to throw things away. I have four old computers that I keep tinkering with….numerous audio receivers that need a capacitor here and a diode there.
I feel for ya.
ROFL …. I think this is why I have never succumbed to the lure of naming my things …. I would be just like you
*gasp* Of course they live! My VCR Mr. Pither and I, we share so many times together, and my video camera Tommy, it travelled with me across the country once. Have a cup with Jeff for me.
Will do…
Mr Pither… wish I’d have thought of that name for something…
Mr. Pither likes to eject tapes before the movies get too perilous. It was either that or Launcelot, and my lawn mower already has dibs on that name. Even though they never meet, I didn’t want one to get jealous of the other.
I saw this and immediately thought ‘I’d like a poster of that’.
I’m working on some posters at the moment… in fact I’m working on an idea that means I can turn any comic here into a poster quickly and easily so that anyone can request whatever they would like… still a little way off, but we’re getting there.
I’m glad you like it by the way, it borders on the more art-orientated side than the gag side of my comics and whilst they’re not normally as popular, I do like drawing them.
I added you strip, by the way, to my rotating blogroll thing over on the right…
Cheers.
I’ll keep an eye out for the posters thing.
On the subject of Things, will you be at the Comix Thing on Saturday?
‘fraid not… though I would love to be down there, but I have a couple of commisions that I need to be working on, animations, with their deadlines approaching very quickly the bank holiday weekend will give me a chance to catch up.
That and I’ll be trying to make some headway with the print copies of my comic and the *merchandise* – thinking about it, I’d have nothing to sell this year… not that these things are all about selling as much as they are about meeting some other cool people who do the same sort of thing…
That said, I notice my buddies, The Paper Tigers are down there on table 46 – they’re a collective and responsible for the first every prints of any of my strips… Sean’s a nice bloke too.
Actually, looking at the line-up – http://ukwebcomixthing.co.uk/ – it’s pretty strong this year, with the exceptions of some of the smallpress magazines like RedEye that are missing, it’s a solid representation of some of the best UK based comics.
You’ll have to let us know how you get on
Sorta on the subject, I could have murdered my laptop today for betraying me and sending some of my design work in AutoCAD 6×10^6mtrs south west of where I wanted it.
GGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
I really like this comic, esp the drawing side of it.
I didn’t think poster straight away, but I did think “looking good!”
I was born in 1984, which sorta makes me a child of the 90’s.
Hmmm, I think it depends on the style of electrical goods. I like some things for their (personification right there) faults and some for the particular way they work.
I collect old amps, so maybe I see it a little different from others.
It used to be you could donate gadgets and appliances to charity.
Now even the garbage companies don’t want them. They want to
*charge* people money to dispose of them. The solution is sell
them on ebay, or give them as gifts to people you don’t like.
True. That said, it’s being talked about in a serious way over here – the plan is that you will always be able to return it to whoever you bought it from to dispose of. I think that means in terms of shops rather than second hand though.
Haha, I have the same sort of problem, actually. My hi-fi doesn’t play CDs, won’t tune to any radio stations and I’m not sure it’s all that great with tapes either, if I’m honest.
My TV has a similar problem to yours, too.
But they’re awesome.
I suppose I’m probably a 90s kid…I was still a fairly small child, but it’s those early memories that count, right?
“I’m not sure it’s all that great with tapes either”
Still using tapes? That’s a solid commitment to a dying piece of technology right there.
Mine are boxed up and awaiting the second coming of tape players… they will be back someday… possibly.
I’m a child of the nineties but I totally empathize with what you’ve described. Just looking at my desk right now, I have an old beaten up Rubik’s cube (his name is Enri, by the way), my calculator friend for whom I keep telling myself I will soon buy new batteries, a Zippo lighter with a striker so worn down that it can’t make a spark, and an old stereo which no longer obeys his remote control and only picks up one station.
Hey there Christo, Enri,
The disobedient stereo is a classic. They usually go through a stage where no matter which button you press it just ‘pauses’ or tries to record before ignoring you all together.
It also sounds like you could build some sort of fantastical device soley from the contents of your desk.
Haha! My older brother, born 1981, is still using his old first-gen IBM Thinkpad. STILL. That laptop’s ten years old. Its (his?) name is Tik-Tok. We celebrated it’s birthday recently. Tik-Tok has to be plugged in, and its display doesn’t work anymore, so it has to be plugged into an external monitor, and the mouse thing broke, so you need an external mouse. And the processor and RAM make it impractical to run anything but a really stripped-down version of Linux. But he loves it.
This one, I agree, would make a good poster. Also, Adam, I tend to like the “art” side more than the “gag” side, though your sense of humour is what attracted me in the first place.
Well, I think that’s about it there… I mean I doubt anyone can top that for attachment to defunct technology.
The life-support requirements alone deserve an honorable salute, never mind the painful speed at which it must choke down data.
Hopefully – and the longer I stick at this the more likely it will be – I’ll be able to get to the point where I can consistently combine the two each day. Right now though I’ll settle for either.
I don’t name my things (I’m really bad with names anyway, I’ve carried on long acquaintances with people without ever finding out what their names are (this is the problem with the modern world: no one introduces themselves anymore)), and though old electronics tend to pile around me, the real reason I never upgrade them is that I can’t afford better ones. I’d kill for a new TV, computer, a decent DVD player (I use my computer for it at this point, my DVD player is cheap and temperamental and I WILL NOT TOLERATE SKIPPAGE IN MY FILM-WATCHIN’), and an MP3 player with video (not an iPod, I hate Apple things).
On the other hand I am a packrat and when anyone else throws out electronics I usually take them off their hands. Pretty soon I want to get some electronics training and then I will use it to build freakish Frankensteinien devices which combine all these appliances into HORRIBLE MONSTROUS KILLER MACHINES!!! Also I’ll build my own custom guitars. (But as I suck at woodworking I’ll probably just mix and match existing parts.)
Building freakish machines… living the dream, Joe, living the dream.
I’ve probably asked you this before, but you make electric guitars, right? i tried that a couple of times and even got a half-decent instrument out of it. I also tried an acoustic… the results were not good.
Yeah, at the moment I’ve built one electric from spare parts and heavily modified an acoustic into an electric. I’m stalled in those projects now though, being totally destitute.
I’m like that with phones. I don’t name them, but I’ve only had two. One died completly, so i had to let it go, and my current one well…the call button doesn’t always work, so I have to wait until it’s in a good enough mood to let me phone someone. same with the hanging up/on off button, so my phone clearly doesn’t like being switched off.
I name quite a lot of stuff though.
I name my computer. Though I’m a bit abusive at him. He’s kind of a drama queen, which is why I named him Carlo/Farinelli, really. Also my car will have a name, er, when I get a car. If I get a car. My compass is named Bernard and my pocketwatch is named Horace. My coat even has a name! Bagoas (he is a fabulous lovely pretty Persian-looking coat). And…let’s see…there’s my copious plushies, which I sleep with because I’ve gotten used to sleeping with another person in the bed (woe for trans-continental romance!). There’s also my coffee mug, who needs a name.
You are reminding me of Salad Fingers……….
Alot!
Who what now? I’ve heard of this Salad Fingers, but how am I reminding you of him?
Have you watched the series of cartoons?
http://www.fat-pie.com/salad.htm
The names the character (apparently female) chooses for her belongings are in a way similar to yours.
Not very, now that I re-read your post, but the initial impression was strong.
Word of warning, Salad Fingers is weird, f**king weird and some times disturbing.
Well, all my names have a reason. Bernard was the mouse in The Rescuers that always had the map and so it is a fitting name for my compass. Bagoas was Alex the Great’s beautiful Persian dancer boy, so it is a fitting name for my beautiful Persian-style coat. Horace means ‘time keeper’–a perfect name for a clock. Farinelli was the most famous castrato, and quite a Queen Bitch; my laptop is definitely fussy and bitchy, but I love him despite it.
My car might be McLeach, from Rescuers Down Under; or possibly Hexxus, lol. Though when I get a nice little electric car, I will name it Bee.
>Word of warning, Salad Fingers is weird, f**king weird and some times disturbing.
Sounds like my kind of cartoon.
Yep. Just watched the first two. Reminds me of Like A Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, kinda. http://www.amazon.com/Like-Velvet-Glove-Cast-Iron/dp/1560971169/