Pitfalls of Rationalization

Items I want to talk about but are too short for their own entry:

• My office building had to disable the thermostat in my office because it was sending faulty signals to the center of our floor, resulting in +80 degree temperatures in some other offices. So now everywhere else in the building the temperature is perfect, and it's about 60 degrees in my office. This is not my beautiful life.
• Am I the only person in world who finds that new T-Mobile commercial absolutely hilarious? The one where the guy keeps obsessively re-recording his voicemail to a girl he just met? Seriously, I crack up every time I see it. This is the second T-Mobile commercial I've loved. I think something is seriously wrong with me.
• My Christmas drive kicked in at least a week too early this year. I'm totally spent on Christmas, and we're still 12 days out. I blame my awesome Christmas Mix CD, which I busted out the day after Thanksgiving. I'm completely ruined for the holidays now. (I'm almost entirely finished with my shopping though. That's awesome at least.)
• Also, sweet unholy damn, I am in the best mood this week.

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So my computer monitor is in the final stage of its life, like a dying red giant star seconds before collapsing into supernova (Note: Please do not email me to correct my astronomy. I do not care that my science has failed me. Blame the public school system.).

It now takes well over 10 minutes to display anything after turning it on, and takes another 15 minutes after display for the picture to actually settle into a normal viewable image (as opposed to a shaky wavering mess).

Considering the little guy is now over 2 years old and was the cheapest LCD monitor on the planet when I bought him, I think I ended up getting my money's worth. And I mean that literally, it was the cheapest flat screen monitor I could find anywhere. I bet I got a better deal on that thing than I would have if I had bought something out of the back of a guy's van in the bad part of town.

But that's what happens when your brain works like mine: You have a predetermined budget for a new computer. If you get rid of a) a printer, b) a warranty, and c) a remotely decent monitor, you can get yourself a pretty nice actual computer. Granted it's surrounded by empty space and a piece of junk display, but oh the computer itself is fancy.

Anyways. So now I've got to get a new monitor. Which immediately (also only in my brain) means that I need to get a whole new computer. Because really they're a set, right? You can't get one without the other.

Actually, it turns out this is not true. You are able to purchase monitors independently of computers, particularly when your computer is actually still running very well. It just takes a lot of convincing inside my mind. Because seriously, new computers are so shiny nowadays. All dual cores and wild computing power and enough RAM to run every program on my current computer all at one time.

But considering my previous mandate to "never buy anything again" after I got the new car, along with the state of my work industry, which is bouncing back and forth daily between "Bad" and "Job-Threateningly Horrendous," I was able to talk myself down from a new computer purchase. The monitor, however, is a requirement.

The real news, though, is that it turns out that rationalizing myself all the way down from a huge new expensive computer to only buying a monitor allows my conscience to guilt-free upgrade to a decent monitor, AND a reasonable video card to go along with it. In my brain, the saving from not buying a whole new computer offset the upgrade costs.

I never even thought of that as a rationalization exercise. I fear for my wallet now with these new-found powers. But man, am I ever looking forward to my new swank 22" widescreen monitor. It's gonna be sweet.