Thursday 15 May 2014

First World Problems

We went up to Lansing, the Michigan capitol, to visit my little sister on Easter. She lives on the outskirts of the MSU college campus, on a road called Jolly, where Okemos and Lansing somehow begin and end.

Her apartment is nicer than mine ever was. She and her roommate took pains to make the place homely and lived in. My walls were always barren and the furniture was sparse.

My son likes to use her bedroom as a playroom. He's suddenly become shy about everything, and likes to close the door on people. Without asking he jumps onto her bed, grabbing her stuffed animals and using them in whatever game he had been playing with the toys he brought from home.

"Be careful," my little sister tells him. "I don't want you breaking my tablet."

I notice the book sized case sitting under her pillow.

"You bought a tablet."

"I bought a Samsung. It's the latest model."

"Why? You have a laptop."


"But I don't want to take my laptop to Europe, and I still want something to read while on the plane. So I bought this. Now I can read books and watch movies on the way over...You know, First World problems."

Freedom sometimes means the freedom to buy as many unnecessary electronics as your heart desires.

That's all from Elliott at the Kitchen Table, transferring files from my Alpha Smart Neo to my laptop. First World Computation.