Although the piano example sounds a bit odd to me – anyone learning to play an instrument will need to practice regularly between lessons if they want to progress as well as possible, so not having a piano at home (or at least daily access to one elsewhere) would be a problem. I know there are exceptions where people have learned to play even without having their own piano, but learning an instrument is challenging enough in the early stages – why make it more difficult for yourself?

In such a case, it would maybe make sense to rent one or get a cheaper ‘student’ model initially, rather than buying the super-expensive option – but not having an instrument to practice on at all is a bad idea, IMO.

I’m not really complaining because he left me with many beautiful memories and I told him I never resented him spending the money because I considered it his hobby, besides he never neglected family obligations. Family and bills always came first.

Now all I have to do is remember this post whenever I make a purchase.

I second this remark.

As a musician myself (piano & violin), I can tell you that when you reach the limitations of your current equipment, it will be _very_ obvious.

1 (or both) of these things will happen:

1. Your teacher will start commenting on how your equipment is holding you back…and do so for several weeks.
2. You will try to do something that you were able to get working on the teacher’s instrument and find it utterly impossible to reproduce at home.

with portable instruments, #1 kicks in. For pianos, #2 will generally become painfully obvious and then you can talk to your teacher to confirm the problem.

air and light and time and space

“–you know, I’ve either had a family, a job,
something has always been in the
way
but now
I’ve sold my house, I’ve found this
place, a large studio, you should see the space and
the light.
for the first time in my life I’m going to have
a place and the time to
create.”

no baby, if you’re going to create
you’re going to create whether you work
16 hours a day in a coal mine
or
you’re going to create in a small room with 3 children
while you’re on
welfare,
you’re going to create with part of your mind and your body blown
away,
you’re going to create blind
crippled
demented,
you’re going to create with a cat crawling up your
back while
the whole city trembles in earthquake, bombardment,
flood and fire.

baby, air and light and time and space
have nothing to do with it
and don’t create anything
except maybe a longer life to find
new excuses
for.

Then again, as I am neither a classicist or a Vatican beauracrat, I’ve used my Latin skills about twice in a twenty year career. So maybe all that work in college would have been better devoted to something in finance or engineering? You’re post brought a smile of nostalgia to my face. Gratias ago.

1. Look at what you have, and figure out if you can use any of that for now even if it’s not ideal for the job. (For example, if you want to start lap swimming and you only have beach bathing suits, as long as they’re suitable for the pool, suppress your ego and use them for a while until you get into enough of a routine to justify buying racing trunks.)

2. Figure out the lowest possible initial investment to set yourself up for success. Sometimes this means buying “throwaway” entry-level gear. (For example, if you’re a musician, buy a student instrument rather than a pro model.) The issue here is that this level of gear doesn’t hold its value very well. Don’t spend what you’re not comfortable losing.

3. Buy quality equipment used. Even if it’s more expensive, you will probably be able to sell it for close to what you bought it for if it doesn’t work out. (Of course, this means you need the willpower to throw in the towel and get your money out.)

I find instances where I still do the whole spending what I want to be thing: buying clothes a size or two too small to motivate me to lose that last 10 lbs. Luckily I don’t do this a lot, but I have never worn some perfectly good clothes just because I bought them too small and never lost that weight. Silly, but I don’t think I am the only one who does this. At least I am now taking boxing lessons so perhaps I will lose that 10 lbs after all

This article is deliciously saved.

Your insight is spot on – again.

I reckon this phenomenon also applies to buying books on subjects you want to know more about, but then never actually reading the books you buy. It’s like hoping that just owning the book will mean the knowledge is absorbed by osmosis rather than by taking the time to actually read them.

I also wonder whether there’s a buying-addiction or a marketing aspect involved? Becoming interested in a new topic creates an excuse to buy the necessary stuff, generating the pleasure (there’s no other way to describe it) of seeking out, buying, setting up and playing with new stuff. And marketers are happy to feed the beast, by trying to convince us we need this stuff if we ever want to be what we aspire to.

You have go to make a choice.

Guess what? I could care less about the Joneses.

It’s not very expensive (about $25-$40/month at many places) and helps the parents get over the worry that their child will tire of lessons after 6 months and then they’ll be stuck with a big, expensive, unused piano.

Also, most companies have a Rent-to-Own option, where the money you give them monthly accrues toward buying a piano (not necessariy the older ‘renter’ you have either), should you decide in a while that you want to go ahead and take the plunge.

Also, these places usually deliver the pianos for you, and you’re assured they’re in tune, which is something you can’t take for granted with a used craigslist piano.

(That said, I’ve found several great pianos on craigslist that were free, the owners simply stipulated that you pay to have them moved out and then they’re yours… it costs about $200-$500 in my city to have a piano moved, depending on the company and the number of stairs!;)

Hope this helps anyone who isn’t taking lessons simply because they can’t afford a piano. Have a rental delivered, try it out for 6 months, and during that time you’ll have figured out if it’s just going to be a big dust-catcher or if you’ve just discovered a relaxing new passion!

One day, I finally realized that I expected the stuff to transform me into what I wanted to be. I bought things to change the way my life was flowing but I didnt took the time to commit myself into change…

You’re comparing a pencil to oil paint: oil paint produces some beautiful pictures, but if you try to use oil painting techniques with a pencil, you’re not going to end up with an oil painting, but with a bunch of pictures that look like *%^&%. But if you use techniques designed for the pencil, you can end up with art.

The secret to making good pictures with a 110 is to rethink what you want from the final image. 110 film captures much less detail than a 35mm camera (a frame of 110 film contains 1/4 the space that a frame of 35mm film does), so you need to work with that: you’re not going to get a sharp, clear, smooth photo, so you look for pictures that are enhanced by graininess, blurriness, and so on. Think pinhole cameras: you can make art with a 110 cartridge and a piece of tinfoil with a hole punched in it.

There’s a photography movement called Lomography, which is pictures inspired by low-resolution snapshot-style cameras of the past. Click on my name in this comment to see a gallery of photos that you can browse to see some high- and low-resolution film and digital pictures.

Art is in the eye of the artist, not in the materials.

Great post as always. My experience with this topic is sort of a happy medium. In 2007, the idea of becoming an elite triathlete was “cooking” in my mind after watching the Ironman on TV.

Unsure if this was something that would “stick”, I introduced myself to cycling by investing $200 in a basic used bicycle. While that sounds like a lot, even a used entry-level racing bike will run about $1000.

Well, fast forward to 2008, and I did end up spending $2000 on a mid-grade carbon fiber bicycle and all the other fixings a triathlete needs(wetsuit, running gear, etc.). And in 2009, I completed the Ford Ironman Triathlon in Florida, a grueling 15-hour race, considered the holy grail for triathletes…and for some, a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

It’s okay to spend based on who you want to be, but it’s important to take exploratory “baby steps”, by buying used on craigslist, ebay, and the like. This will allow you to feel out if who you want to be is realistically within reach, and not have you break the bank in the process of figuring that out.

Of course, this is not a universal rule. I am merely sharing my own experience that with my $200, I would have been able to learn whether or not to get out of this sport early on before spending a few thousands.

I went to Everest last year with a friend of mine. We took almost 12 months to buy our gear as we knew what we needed and waited until it was all on sale.

In our group was a guy who had spent thousands of dollars on top of the range hiking equipment and clothes and latest versions of everything, he had to leave half of it in Kathmandu because the porters can only take 12 kilos per bag!

He also only lasted a couple of days on the walk because he had all the latest gear but hadn’t done much exercise to train for the trip.

I have not used the FSI govt language program yet but someone shared this link with me…
http://www.fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php?page=Spanish

The best thing I ever did was to learn salsa dancing and listen to spanish music and date a latino. If the latter is not an option, listen to some latin rock or salsa. But seriously if you can find a latina chic who can teach you spanish, that is the best investment ever.

Worthy purchase: dictionary
Hang out at borders and do grammar exercises.