MP What?

At the ripe old age of almost older than dust, Ive found there are several things I can do without. Here are some of them:

Cell phone OK, to be honest here, I do have a cell phone but I never turn it on. Its one of those old-fashioned, bulky ones that I have just for emergencies. And no one has the number either. The way I look at it, if Im away from the home phone, I just dont want to be bugged by folks. I like being able to focus on what Im doing and enjoy whatever it is without interruption. Silly, huh?

Update: I no longer have a cell phone. My wife has one. My granddaughter now has one one of those new slim, miniature, streamlined gadgets that you can use to text message Mars if you wish. I dont have one. Im happy

Digital camcorder And no, Ive never owned an older analog model either. Now admittedly, if they would have had these things back when the kids were growing up I probably would have used it. Instead, I occasionally dragged out the 8mm movie camera and shot a few feet of film with that. It seemed to work out OK.

(For you young folks, an 8mm movie camera is a pre-VHS device that used a spool of skinny film that you would shoot and then send off to be developed. We used it mostly to take pictures of the buffalo herds and our covered wagons.)

MP 3 Player I cant think of a single reason that I would want to wander around the back yard or anywhere else for that matter - listening to music or watching music videos or TV shows. Music is for sitting back in the recliner and being able to absorb the sound and appreciate the blend of instruments and the vocalists interpretation of the lyrics. Even that is hard to do with some of the stuff that folks are loosely categorizing as music these days. I know. Im just being old-fashioned. Although, come to think of it, it might be nice sometime to just kick back under the old maple tree and soak up a few C&W tunes. I wonder if my Emerson transistor radio still works

Satellite radio I seems to me that there is plenty of stuff available through the regular FM channels without having to fork out extra bucks just to have a selection of a hundred and sixty other things to listen to. Yeah, yeah, I know. Its digital transmission and no commercials. Nah, not for me

Karaoke machine Lets see, if I purchase one of these gadgets Ill be able to hold a microphone and in front of some quantity of other people, make an ass out of myself by pretending that Im a big star and can really carry a tune. Dont think so

GPS receiver OK, a long, long time ago I learned how to read a map and highway/street signs. My vehicle also has an odometer. Since I dont wander off the beaten path into the puckerbrush (thats real close to the boondocks for you city slickers), I cant think of a single reason I would need an electronic gadget to tell me something I already know. Maybe theres something I dont understand here.

PC games Truthfully, I have played solitaire a couple of times. You know - the game that comes at no extra cost with the basic software. Oh, and I occasionally pop into one of the games the simple silly ones that I have in the Take a Break section of the NuPathz site. Thats it. Sure, I do understand that a whole bunch of folks really enjoy playing all kinds of different games and thats OK. Its frequently a way to exercise the gray matter and the on-line games do offer a chance to socialize. Thats a really good thing for a lot of people. So its OK, its just not for me.

A state-of-the art PC Let me think real hard about this.nah, for word processing, spread sheet and web site program, I think my plain-Jane system will be working just fine for a while. (A 386-based system is good enough, right? Just kidding)

Home weather station Actually, I have one of these. Its called the front door. Anytime I want, I can know almost immediately if its hot cold wet dry calm or windy. Works for me

Atomic clock If I ever have a need to know down to the precise fraction of a second what time it is - were both in trouble!

Rapid beverage chiller This comes under the category of planning. If I go to the store one day and am smart enough to put the drinks in the fridge, Ill bet theyll be cold by the next day when I need them.

Electronic pillbox I just saw this at one of those super-duper electronic store web sites. Not only does it have a programmable alarm - it comes equipped with a two-ounce liquid capacity and a straw. Think I should get one for my vitamins? Nah

PDA Now I know there are a whole bunch of folks who are really, really busy and need to keep track of a whole gob of things but I aint one of em. Even when I was fairly busy out in the real world, I found that my little pocket scheduler worked just as easily and was just as fast as a PDA. The way I look at it, if you need to access e-mail or update a Word document while youre sitting on the potty, youre way too busy. This is another gadget I can do without

Playstation/Xbox Remember the dont do games thing? Pretty well leaves these gadgets out, doesnt it?

Broadband phone service And why would I forego use of my standard wired-into-the-house phone for this? Cant see any benefit here

Laptop Now I would imagine these things are pretty handy if youre out and about a lot. I, on the other hand, find it quite convenient to walk a few feet to my office (OK, so its a room with PC, desk, books, guinea pig and parrot) to plunk down in front of my handy-dandy desktop. If Im out and about, the last thing I want with me is a personal computer. Oh yeah, that and a cell phone