It really depends on how we define indulgence to decide whether we should feel bad about indulging or not. If we’re playing by Catholic rules then we are in “partial remission of temporal punishment,” which means hell, because we still owe some form of penance. That sounds too stressful. Following the more…everyday definition, it is a little simpler: yielding to a desire. Treating yourself to something you want instead of need. The thing we indulge in might not save our lives, but it sure as hell will make that life sweeter.
Tech toys walk a fine line between indulgence and necessity. Being alive in 2015 means having access to certain technologies will enhance not only our quality of life, but also the convenience and accessibility of interaction with culture, popular and otherwise. While having a 75-inch HD 4K flatscreen with 7.1 surround sound might be seen as incredibly unnecessary, if one of your true joys is watching films, TV shows, or sports, then it’s basically a priceless investment in happiness.
Life is stressful, dammit, and the moments where true bliss can be found are more important than we give them credit for. Someone who would spend $90,000 on a mountain bike might judge someone for spending $10,000 on a television (and vice versa), but, objectively, everyone has different things that keeps the doldrums away as we wait for that next paycheck or those next vacation days.
Which, yes, makes us consumers. As much as we would all like to be organic farmers living in a yurt, sometimes we just want to watch Bruce Willis blow something up so loudly that we feel it in our toenails. With that said, here are a few things to consume that are absolutely, ridiculously, indulgent…and all the more beautiful for it.
Home Theater
Stereo Planet has a good reputation for indulgences and this setup is by far the most magnificent around. It’s a 4K, 75-inch Sony flatscreen with a 7.1 surround sound system ($5,000). But that’s just the icing, the cake is the accessories. That beautiful televisual behemoth is connected to a pair of 600W McIntosh monoblock amplifiers ($14,000 a pair) and a McIntosh preamp ($7,000), all coming through flawlessly on Sonos Faber speakers ($13,000). It has a turntable, so there is an analog source, as well. This set-up is mostly geared toward high-quality music, but the video quality from the television is gorgeous. Even the cabling, which is high quality silver wire, will run you around $5,500. All in all, this will set you back around $44,500, but a comfortable home theater is priceless.
Smoke Products
Smoking weed is complicated nowadays with vapes, dabs, nails, and everything in between. For the health-conscious head, there is the D-Nail Ninja ($550) for concentrates. It heats the pen electronically via wall plug-in, so that way the clumsier stoners don’t kill themselves by torch or other extreme flame device. The 12-inch T-case comes with a digital control station, heaters, nails, a coil heater with kevlar sheath, and power cords. April Grow from A Piece of Mind reminded this reporter that, “Glass can be techy, too,” especially with the advent of the Hi Si ($350), a scientific approach to smoking. With a percolator design that induces maximum cooling to the smoke you inhale, it reduces the health risks inherent in inhaling hot, smoke-filled air. Walter White would love this thing. This way, you can have a pretty glass accessory, while also filling your tech quota.
Camera
The Canon EOS 70D DSLR ($1,299 at Best Buy) is a beast. It has 20.2 megapixels, a 100-12,800 ISO equivalent, 7 frames per second, 1080p with Wi-Fi and multiple exposures while also having a casserole ready if you come home from work late and just need to take a little break. The screen on this bad boy shows you the picture you’re taking as opposed to having to look through the viewfinder and as you adjust the ISO, shutter speed, or aperture, the screen shows you exactly what the picture will look like. Maybe we’re not supposed to have this technology. Faces will become too clear and mountain ranges will look so beautiful, we won’t be inspired to climb them. Oh….AND YOU CAN MAKE MOVIES WITH IT, TOO!! Soon, the Canon will be our master, and we its vassals, sending images to its mother brain, deep beneath the Sierra Nevadas. Seriously though, this camera is amazing and will change your life.
This article appears in Sep 23-30, 2015.
MAKE LOCAL JOURNALISM HAPPEN
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
ok , peeps . its time for the breakdown . Im off tuesday and wednesdays , so , tuesday is the action day and wednesday is the relax day when I fire off the e mail of the past weeks events . continue to rock out at kindergarten . I would imagine that kindergartens have much in common with lunatic asylums . high volume . random , incoherent babbling . anti social behavior . spastic outbursts . and then there is the students . any way , love kindergarten . so funny . some of them get it . some of ; ; them dont . some of them think they know whats happening but are not completely sure . this is the nose . this is the ear . sing and dance time . so I got two turtles and I also got a crab . dont know what to feed the crab . had two hermit crabs but I fed them a bit of pear and that appeared to have led to their untimely demise . do you let white wine breath ? what if you let red wine breath for over a day ? so , the market . wow . saw a cucumber as big as my leg . I think the noodles I worship are called LAMPUR . more on that in the future as I have decided to deconstruct these noodles with an interpreture eventually . I may end up writing a book about these noodles . I think I eat them every other day . when I say eat Im talking about 4 servings . ok , so , the market . its really all about fruit and vegtables but that will probably change as winter sets in . lots of food carts with baked goods . big , swiming fish and jumping shrimp . will have a pet shrimp soon . maybe feed the pet crab the pet shrimp . ok , so , the market . its basically a street that has been turned into a market . I pass by / through it as I enter my appartment complex . also , there are these three wheeled taxi’s right there , which is really good because I use them to get to and from my kindergarten . its a buck ( five yuan ) and it saves me a 20 min. walk . I dont think I have ever walked it but I should just to see how long it takes . so , I take the 208 bus to get to the jinnan library where I work on the weekends . when I say work I mean bullshit with the crew and students for a few hours . thats a 20 minute bus ride . 50 cents ( three yuan ) . but I catch a ride to there from the kindergarten with my boss lisa . she is really cool and dates my homie gary and has a six year old kid with some other guy . so , another bus , the 652 , takes me downtown . this takes like 2 hours or more and Its often packed . its really a crap shoot . I guess during rush hour in the morning and evening its packed . but seriously , its like , man , you just cant fit more people on to this fricking bus , and then more people get on . talk about getting to know the chinese . same with the sub way . last year I was all about the sub way . not this year . tomorrow I will probably go downtown . today I actually hit the sea . yep . the pacific ocean . stuck my finger in it . for real . it was great . wrote a song about it . wanna hear it . ok , here it goes . left at six am . took the 652 south , the opposite direction . the highway I like next to is called the jinqing highway or S 106 . any how , it goes from downtown , past my place , all the way to the sea . pretty far out . so , the mantra was stay on this road . if the bus goes off the road , get off the bus and get back on the road and get another bus . I also had my beloved i phone 6 + with me to look at my g.p.s. position on my maps application . I love my phone . the ring tone is bark . so , after , like , my 5th bus , I got off the road because now the coast was due east and the road headed south . so , I walked through this big intersection , dreads flying everywhere , and these dudes in a black caddilac pull me over . I show them my i.d. , which is a xerox of my passport photo that I keep in my wallet ( this was the first , and maybe last time I have ever used it ) , then pulled out my phone and said , this is where I am , blue dot , and this is where Im going , blue sea . they spoke no english . they were like , ok , fine . so , I got a cab and blasted to the sea . so , I got there , and it was just this empty , new , 8 lane high way , maybe one car every five minuets , and no cabs or busses , then a closed off six lane high way , surrounded by marsh land , a giant oil refinery , a nuclear plant . so , I walk through this marsh on a dirt road . if it rained on me I would have been looking at a half mile walk through mud . very happy it did not rain . finally get to the ocean . clear . warm . would not have jumped in you paid me . it was a huge breakwall . looking out to sea a few miles and there was another huge break wall . that one was not on any map and I dont know why it was there or what it does . very strange . so , hung out for a while . again , no one there . no one . totally empty . no body . so , mission accomplished . great . wanted to check that box off for a year and a half . now how the hell do I get out of here . back to the road . no bus . this is the only place in the whole city where there is no taxi . ok . so , hitch hike . after about half and hour and having a few people slow down a little but not enough for me to stand up, this cat come driving down the road , the wrong way , like in the wrong lane and stuff , does a u turn . Im like , thank god , because I would have had to ” comondeer ” a vehicle at some point . so I get in and we haul ass out of there . I offer the cat a 50 spot knowing he would be like , no thanks . I get out and have a great lunch , spicy calamari and beer . then its back on the bus . some old folks help me get out at the right spot . then Im talking to some high school kids . this was really funny because whenever I talk to high school boys in china its just basically telling each other the names of n.b.a. stars . so then I make it back home and here I am . got the air conditioneer on . wonder if I will be using the a/c in october . that would be pretty strange . have been having trouble streaming music so now I listen to all my music on youku.com . this is the chinese youtube.com . no youtube.com for me . when I do have access to youtube.com then thats how I listen to all my music . dont have chess.com but now play on chessclub.com . also , cant seem to find any info on the world chess championship 2015 . hmmmm . world chess championship 2014 was last november in sochi won by the 25 year old norweigian number one dude magnus carlsen . but I digress . on chess . love chess . so , at the kindergarten its me and about 20 super hot young chinese ladies so , uh , cant really complain about that . when someone dies in china they get in a truck and drive around firing these giant cannons . Im not kidding . it sets off car alarms . also , anyone who does have a car alarm should be shot immediately . so , Im getting ready for the autumn festival soon , to be followed by a week of national day celebrations . I think october first 1949 was the birth of the nation . china is like 4000 years old but the chinese think that china is , like , 66 years old or something . for some reason Im saying like more than a 14 year old girl . I appologize . I have no explanation for this . any way , everything is great , except for my internet , which sucks , but , I am aware that there are real people out there who have actual problems , so I wont whine to you about the fact that MY INTERNET SUCKS . at least I got it . I also wont whine about my V P N limbo . seriously , if anyone wants to talk about football . . . . . really . . . . football . . . . anyone . . . . . cwb out . LUV YA .