Kicking it 1990s Style

So if a thief walked into my apartment looking to score some sweet electronics, I think they would be highly disappointed. First, they would be daunted by the massive CRT television sitting on my little wooden stand. Who still has those and how could I possibly get that down 4 flights of stairs, the thief might ask, reflecting on how s/he probably has a better TV at home. Sure, I have a laptop. It's actually an expensive one. I didn't know any better and asked my IT guy when I left my job to freelance/go to grad school what kind I should get. So I've got an IBM T60 that costs $1K. Pretty sure it's the most expensive thing in my apartment. But, it's old, as far as computers go. I bought it in 2006. It runs Microsoft Office 2003. Probably Windows 2003 too, I'm not even sure. The only other electronics are an iPod nano, which I carry with me, so my robber wouldn't be able to access it. My mom got me a nice Bose docking station several years ago, to I have that. I also have a small digital camera that was not very expensive.

Overall, the items that I just named I purchased over a 5 year period and cost a total of about $1500 (the TV was free, as was the Bose sounddock).

This year I am thinking about buying some new gadgets -- currently vacillating between an iPad and a Kindle. I really want an eReader of some type, but then I see how expensive the ebooks are and I lose my enthusiasm. I'm a pretty avid library user, so this would add a new budget line item. Right now I pretty rarely buy books.

I also think about ditching the old CRT for a flat screen, mostly so I could cut the cord on cable and just get HDMI cables to watch shows online on my TV. I'd probably subscribe to Hulu Plus and maybe buy a Roku box. I am tempted, but also kind of waiting for the technology to catch up. Also, something about the experience of putting on the TV and just kind of watching whatever I find is attractive to me.

Whatever I do buy, the prices for TVs and eReaders have come down a lot since they were first introduced, so I'm glad that I've waited.