Despite my for-all-appearances geekiness, I am not, actually, an early adopter. Part of this is money (as in I don't have enough to try every new thing that comes out before it becomes a standard thing), and part of it is that I spend most of my days (and an awful lot of my nights) learning new things in order to run my business and darnit, when it comes to certain things like new home entertainment gadgetry, I want someone to explain it to me. Like a boyfriend, say.

OK. Now that this backstory has been established....

I'm flipping through Bloglines tonight and pulled up Gizmodo, which I read only infrequently mostly because it contains mostly reviews of gadgets I will never own nor even understand enough to want to own. And I happened across their story on the first HD-DVD hitting the shelves soon.

Now, I guess theoretically I knew this was coming - I've been hearing about HDTV for a while, surely this was the logical follow-the-dots move.

However, that was not my reaction when I first read the link. My reaction was more along the impulse to grab my skin at the forehead and peel my face slowly down as I scream at my pretty shiny 17" laptop screen.

Because seriously folks, I still haven't upgraded/rebought most of my VHS tapes into DVD yet. And now there's a new format. Which will require yet another box under my TV. And yet another round of cash laid out so that I can have my favorite stuff in whatever is the most common thing.

Oh, sure, you say (I hear you saying it) - I don't have to upgrade.
But how many people do you know still listening to 8-tracks?

The reality is sooner or later I will have to upgrade. Probably 5 years from now. Never mind that I bought my first DVD player 5 years ago. At this rate I will have to upgrade my media - what - 5 more times before I die?

I'm conflicted. I love bright and shiny new things as much as the next guy. But I also really like having skin on my face. Tough call.

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