Trapped!
Not yet but can see no way out as the net is drawn closed.
My MacBook needed replaced. Boy they are expensive. Trying to determine when is the best to do so before it dies for good, an email from Apple arrived announcing their back to school sale for teachers and students. That was a while ago though and I had been too busy to look into it. Had to get the tent situation squared away, don’t ya know. Finally made time to track down the email and find that the sale goes on through April 9th. Plans were made to spend today, Monday, saving all my data to external hard drives and then go into one of the Apple Stores in Tokyo to either buy it or get their help doing so online. All the information I can access here ion this sale s in Japanese. My reading on such topics is not as good as it was but still not bad but not up to snuff on details needed for such an important and expensive transaction. I also hoped to trade in my old MBA and possibly my old iPad Pro with the yellowed screen. Need to get the price down for the computer as far as possible.
I was looking at getting the least expensive model covered by this sale. They offered a 15,000yen discount on the computer, 20% discount on Apple Care for 3 years, 36 month payment plan and a 22,000 yen gift card.
This is the 20th year we have lived in the house, which means that it is time for its ten year periodicity “Renewal “. Tuesday is when the preexwife scheduled the plumbers to survey for them to make their estimate of what could, should or must be done at what costs. She also scheduled different contractors to visit Wednesday and Friday, the other two days of the week I am free. As per usual, my schedule gets all upended to suit others.
I was up late last night preparing my devices to be traded in and went to the Apple Store near Tokyo Station today Monday). I save all my data to external hard drives to download or not as it suits me. One time I tried to restore a computer from a back up. Never again. The result was as if I had placed a hand grenade in a massive filling cabinet. May folders were empty. Others were missing all the odd numbered files. Others, the even numbered files. Others some to many of both. A massive number of loose files were retrieved but I never have figured out if there were any missing as I have never been able to place all files back where they belong. I know there are files I can’T find but have no idea if they are simply misplaced or missing. I also do not want to bring across any gremlins from old devices, preferring to infect replacement ones with new and improved problems to deal with instead.
My old MBA is 8 years old and despite Apple having a buy back campaign, only 4000 yen was the best they could do. Wanting to shave off every yen possible, I accepted this amount and set about erasing the disc. However, it was too old for anyone working today to figure out how to do so. With the help of the experts, got it to where it continues in a loop of asking the same two questions over and over. The Apple Store folks cannot not fix it and suggested I take it to a Genius Bar and pay them to erase it meaning that not only can I not get 4000 for it, it is currently unusable and I must pay a currently unknown amount to erase it. Can but only laugh. The young woman and then the young man trying to figure it out kept saying “Nande!? Nande!?” “Why is it doing (or not doing) this?” I laughed and remarked that that is by far the question I ask more than all others combined when working with computers. I also said that I do not know if it gratifies me or terrifies me that Apple employees are just as baffled as I when working my machines with their company logo on them. The poor girl wilted and apologized. Oops!
Not able to trade in my now death spiraling old MBA, it was time to pay for the new computer. The 36 month payment plan that I was counting on is only offered for some kind of third party payment. They suggested PayPay. Physically frozen, my mind was working out if I really, really, really, absolutely must have a computer for work; can my iPad Pro not take care of all I need. That answer sadly is “No” but as I was arriving to that destination, the young man now working with me kindly let me know know that it would take only 10 minutes on my iPhone to set up a PayPay account. I whipped out my ancient looking flip phone and he gasped like Dracula at the sight of a cross in an old black and white movie. Regaining his composure, he apologized and told me that I then could not use that payment scheme and asked how I would like to pay. This brings us to the real reason I neglected to follow up on the email from Apple informing me of their sale, I could not afford a new computer no matter how bad I needed one. The massive tax refund I got changed that. I had to replace my iPad Pro last year and was able to claim it as a business expense. I will be able to deduct my computer too from this year’s taxes. This allowed me to buy it as “Ikai barai” or to pay it off with one payment. How many times you will make payments is decided upon purchase in Japan. I do not wish to as I was planning on saving my tax refund to use during the lean months of the year. There still is a path that may be open to me to make monthly payments. Immediately after buying my new computer I answered turns for all ahead flank speed to my credit card service counter to see if I could change from a 1 time payment to multiple payments. Loooong story, short; possibly but not known yet.
This is not good but far from devastating. Thanks to the tax refund, a good February earning wise and a new job starting, if I cannot reschedule the payment it just means tightening the belt a bit more. Not pleasant to be sure, but doable.
But what is this trap I started off with? I am not as afraid of credit cards as I am of E-monies and idiot phones. Young‘uns reading this may be perplexed by this statement as they may see credit cards as a form of E-money. They may not be wrong given how they have evolved, but I recall all too well having to imprint cards at the gas stations I worked at in college and in my mind they are not electronic any more than a personal check is (was?). Credit cards have their issues but they also have their protections. The trap is thus; so ye desire to purposely remain a luddite, do ye now? Fine, it’s a free country (cough cough hack hack). But remaining so excludes you from discounts and better payment plans. For anyone to avail themselves of the 36 month payment plan for a device that cost over 300 times what my grandfather paid for his first car and a third what I paid for my first car, you must have both an idiot phone, which is not cheap, and some kind of electronic money. Those of us who insist on cash and credit are not allowed to participate in commerce as the majority of our species who eagerly sign up for the newest e-money offered and can’t wait for the newest idiot phone model drop are. Further, we are charged more for the reduced services we can use.
Folks, it’s coming. CBDCs and all the rest will be reality for most of us because those of us who understand what these mean are too few in number to arrest the juggernaut. Most can’t wait for this. We are not trapped yet but we are in the trap awaiting its closer.
Why Apple? I switched to Apple after dealing with Window Madness for too many years, but it was a cascading casualty that resulted in the loss of 5 months of photos and five months of edits to other photos that finally shoved me over the precipice and I switched over.
Things have changed a lot since then, but at that time, you could not get software nor hardware for non Japanese Windows in Japan. I did buy a new Toshiba with an English OS in Akihabara but besides the paltry amount of software and hardware that store offered, I could use nothing else with it. Oh, this included a printer as the English version of Windows would not drive a Japanese OS ready printer. But where to get the ink? The internal logic of English and Japanese printers is different. The ink cartridges for Japanese printers will physically fit, but they would not work with my English OS laptop. Can’t buy online either. My credit card is a Japanese issued card, they can only sell/send software and hardware for the domestic, Japanese market. I was depending upon the one business that sold me my pc and their offerings changed frequently. Eventually was no longer to get more ink.
When I had a problem with my windows machine, the first issue was the reverse mommy and daddy game. MS said it was the responsibility of the pc maker and Toshiba said it was MS’s responsibility. When Toshiba finally decided to look into it, my pc was not in their system. It did state on the box that it was for the North American market. Gray market purchase I am guessing.
But losing all my photos and both back ups is what finally got me to go with Apple. At first, it was great! No black Tuesdays! I had control when or even if I wanted to download updates. No longer needed to hit “Start” to shut my computer down and then wait a changing and unknowable length of time before I could close it, pack it away and move on; a massive problem when using it on a commuter train. With Apple, all I have to do is physically shut the machine. Won’t melt the battery, won’t lose what I was working on. Things were even better with my first iPad and later addition of an iPad mini. Could seamlessly move from one device to another and pick up where I left off. Could not do so with my iPad and Windows machine. They were completely segregated systems.
Over the past ten years of so, things have reversed somewhat. Now it is Apple that has (sometimes) and not windows (so I am told) language issues between OS and apps. The compatibility issues between old windows docs and newer versions of various software did not exist with Apple. Sadly, they do now. Losing access to loads of docs and music files upon updates has become a common issue with Apple now too.
There is another issue that is of little import for many in the States but of vital importance to me here in Japan, the MBA is thin and light. Not so much now as I have lost most of my jobs, but I hope to build up more classes, but running all over Hell’s half acre with my ludicrously bulky, heavy Toshiba with a heavy spare battery and charging brick was no fun. Being able to have a computer at least as powerful that was about a quarter as thick and an even smaller portion of the weight with a long lasting battery and tiny charger was a heavy burden lifted from my shoulders. My shoulders and back hurt at the memory of it.
My preference now is fountain pen and paper, but no one can read cursive these days and all my employers have switched to digital documentation.
The sad thing about all this is that the idiot phone is not inherently bad and rather it’s the people who control the technology and are using it against us that are the problem. That aside, there is of course a potential for addiction to such devices which is self evident everywhere we look but that comes down to personal awareness and responsibility. Just in the way I am right now choosing to spend time reading and responding to this article when I could potentially be doing something more constructive. And it’s kind of ironic that I would never even know of your existence or be able to interact with you if it wasn’t for these evil devices! Perhaps you can send me the address of your tent and I’ll write you a nice letter!