I didn't buy a notepad today.
I've been wanting to get one. I've found of late that as I'm out, things occur to me (When I get home, I need to take the ground beef out to thaw.... Wonder if that repairman called back yet?), many of which just vanish from my mind by the time I'm home. At an office, I'd just grab a piece of paper or a sticky and jot a note, but those options aren't really available to me, here.
My thoughts on what to get have ranged all over the map, from a simple paper and pencil through a bound pad and pen to a PDA (I used to use a Casio, and liked it a lot, but I never warmed up to glass-front PDAs) , or maybe a voice recorder ... perhaps something that I could download MP3s to ... maybe with a clock/alarm function...but I don't think the technology is there, yet, and even if it is, my wallet certainly isn't.
Its really easy to assume that of course what you want is available, isn't it? And that a G-search will find it?
This morning, while I was at Barnes and Noble, I looked around for something, and came across some Moleskin notebooks. I'm not a person to be impressed by logos or reputation, though I likely am more than I think, but I do know that I've heard of Moleskin notebooks for quite some time. So I looked at them, and after a bit figured I'd get one. Didn't have a pen, or a slot for one, which was a bit of a downer, and there was an elastic band that loops around it which I thought silly (and I wondered: are they trying to invoke the image of the 'battered but sturdy' notebook from the Indiana Jones series?), but still, it seemed pretty nice. It was ten dollars, which was on the high end of reasonable... and then I noticed: it was made in China.
I really don't like the number of products that are being made overseas because they're cheaper to make, there. I'd rather pay more than support that mindset.
I put it back.
2 comments:
As do I. Mostly.
I wondered if you were still out there! Glad to hear from you.
I'm not opposed to the idea of buying things that are made in China, recent scary news notwithstanding, or elsewhere in that zone, but I detest the idea that companies feel the need to go for the absolute lowest cost, and therefore, presumably, the lowest price, and that they do this by automatically outsourcing overseas. I just can't believe that competing predominantly on price leads anywhere good. I know that slick economists scoff at that attitude, saying that in the end it all works. Well, I do know that at least one smart economist pointed out that in the end, we're all dead.
We're not rigid about it. We don't think that home-grown automatically means better, but if it means 'as good as', or 'good enough', snd the price is decent relative to the quality, we'll buy it. We don't see ourselves as 'whatever it costs' people, but we're willing to pay for quality... and maybe a bit more, to keep jobs where we can see them.We'll go to a local store if we can, something like the K-Mart if we have to, and something like the Wal-Mart if we must.
I got into a brief (and fortunately not acrimonious) discussion once about 'fair-trade' coffee; the question was, how in the world would *I* know what that really means? And the truth is, I don't. I'm sure that there are people who would be glad to enlighten me, but I'm not a True Believer. I just do what I can, as I can.
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