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On fixing stuff | |
januar 31st, 2020 | |
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No doubt, I like to fix stuff. Nothing is more satisfying | |
than giving your good old stuff a new life. | |
Also, shopping ain't fun anymore. When I was younger, I went | |
to a store when I needed something, maybe another store, if | |
the first did not have what I wanted. Call me sentimental, | |
but shopping is not like this anymore. Now I'd spend hours | |
comparing products, reading reviews, and then trying to find | |
the cheapest available offer for the said product | |
online. Where is the fun in that? So some years ago, I | |
stopped buying stuff. At least new things. If I want | |
something, I can find most of it second-hand. Or decide that | |
I don't need it at all. That's 100% of my money saved and, | |
more important to me, this has less of an environmental | |
impact. This is why repairability is so important! I wish | |
that the right to repair was applied to all our | |
belongings. Customers unite, don't buy non-repairable | |
gadgets! | |
Recently, my daughters tablet broke, that is, the micro USB | |
contact is so worn out, that it is impossible to | |
charge. Problem is, that the screen is glued to the | |
case. I've tried to lift the screen after watching lots of | |
videos on youtube. Still no success, but I'm not giving up. | |
My son's Playstation Dualshock controller had the same | |
problem with a worn out USB contact. I ordered a replacement | |
part for a dollar or two. Half an hour later, the controller | |
was as new. 50 bucks saved. Cool. | |
A while ago, I bought a refurbished ThinkPad x250. A | |
DuckDuckGo-search later, I had found the complete repair | |
manual online. Bingo! | |
When buying second-hand, things are sometimes broken. This | |
usually makes the item a lot cheaper. Plus, I can start to | |
fix it. Double the fun. | |
We bought some chairs for our dining room. They are about 90 | |
years old, and one of the eight chairs was broken. What a | |
nice little woodworking project. Almost all tools in my | |
little woodworking shop were bought used in the past | |
decade. Many of them are 100 to 150 years old. And they | |
still do their job. Plus, no need for going to the gym. | |
After my two children were born, they got lots of toys. And | |
even more clothes which got worn out only weeks later. | |
Children break things. All the time. Fixing their stuff, | |
not only makes makes me a proud dad, but my children seem to | |
take extra care of things now. Maybe it's just because they | |
don't want to ask me to fix this or that for the third time, | |
and wait until I'm slowly but steady process my | |
fix-me-yesterday queue. But maybe it's because the are | |
becoming older. Nevertheless, this also allows me to | |
practice sewing, knitting, leather working, woodworking, | |
soldering, gluing (all the time!) and other crafts. | |
So, go and fix your stuff. And learn a whole lot! | |
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