OK - are you with me on this?? I'm on a RANT here.

I am SICK to DEATH of having to $#(#&^** UPGRADE! ... EveryThing!

How much is enough?! For example: I have lived through vinyl to 8-track; from 8-track to cassette tape; from cassette tape to CD. This means I have bought the SAME bloody album FOUR times and then some company is going to be ripped that I *download* a song that I have already PURCHASED FOUR times because the type of media I have isn't "supported" anymore? Sheesh.

Elaine Warner said: "Consumers should be more open to upgrading DVDs and equipment now that their confusion over platform survival and technical specifications is cleared up." Can you *hear* her *voice*?! Like a high-pitched Marge Simpson in my head!

I SAY that whole thing just BLOWS! I am not more **open** to having to UpGrade yet AGAIN. Not AnyThing! I ask again -- How much is enough?? How many times is enough?? Maybe just don't LIVE so long? Heck, I'm not even OLD yet!

Ms. Warner's statement made me SO mad I could spit! Talk about rubbing my face in it with her report at:

blog.compete.com

T.V.'s - let's see; the ol' black&white that worked just fine went in for color (big wood cabinet (NICE!) - it had a stereo on one side That still played vinel AND 8-tracks), lots of storage; was an attractive piece of furniture AND it was even really *real* wood -- you remember what that is? Solid real WOOD (imagine that!) - that ended up in the sun porch with stuff stacked on it when the *newer* model had to move in, the 32" color that was supposed to be somehow *better* (I'm still not sure how or why - it didn't look better to me...then that went out the door to college with daughter and in came 3 flat screens.

Yep; now there isn't just one T.V. in a *family room* anymore; oh no, there has to be one in EVERY room in the house! Every bedroom, the kitchen, even the bathroom for crying out loud. So now, not only do you watch TV more, you watch it Separately because (egads!) no one wants to watch the same show! (I'm back to playing scrabble - often times by myself).

Then -- half of the flat screens went out the door for the newer flat screen that were digital - not to mention the one newest monster added to this gross mess; the PLASMA - HDTV - the movie theater in your home. Whatever. I'm still going to the movies - the ones OUTSIDE of my house in the theater; why? because it's ahhh....more fun?

And then the computers. I started out with a 300 something. a few bits of ram and DOS. Remember DOS? And the big floppy disks that were the size of small pizzas? - Then, you couldn't use those anymore so you had to upgrade to the harder smaller floppy disks; which are now replaced by the CD and zip drives and jump drives and do I have ENOUGH ports for the camera, the webcam, the wireless router...blaa blaa blaa...? The aroma therapy thingy?

Of course there have been MANY many computer upgrades since then - at least 12 that I can *think of* and I have yet to relent and go Vista, my daughter has it and I can't STAND it when I have to monkey around with it to adjust something for her. It is the most Annoying O.S. YET (but at least it doesn't crash and burn like 2000 did) - so...I'm still with XP and THAT was hard enough to get used to after Win98 (the 2nd addition) - which happened to be my Favorite Microsoft ever put out.

Then I had to buy everyone laptops, so we could talk to each other on MSN - from across the hall or from the basement to the third floor and install the wireless network in all of them...and....AAAAGGG - I just chocked...

Soon the CD's will be upgraded to *smaller* CD's and smaller DVD's because, gosh! - they take up toooooo much room! Soon, my DVD player will be the size of an Ipod and I'll lose it, the vacuum cleaner will suck it up - I just know it; cords and all.

Well...I just don't know. All this so far and I'm not even 50 yet. I can't imagine what the next 20 years will bring and take out of my pocketbook.

---end of rant---