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recent experiments:

shock and awe indeed. - 2:26 PM , Friday, Sept. 02, 2005

I grow old, but I prefer my trousers unrolled. - 9:30 AM , Monday, Aug. 22, 2005

it's all about the iPod - 10:00 AM , Thursday, Aug. 11, 2005

uncountable in showers of crimson rubies - 4:43 PM , Monday, Jul. 18, 2005

and I know it aches, and your heart it breaks... - 1:12 PM , Friday, Jul. 08, 2005

if you're this close, introduce yourself.

or, leave me a note.

it's all about the iPod

Thursday, Aug. 11, 2005 ... 10:00 AM

Now Playing:

*~*

All of the high school and college kids who have summer jobs in my department have iPods. Every last one of them. And they wear them all the time. There isn't one person under 21 walking the halls who doesn't have a thin white cord dangling from each ear. I would make a cranky comment about a whole generation being trained to be antisocial except for two things: 1. I suspect that people my (current) age said the same thing in the early 80s when the Walkman was introduced, and 2. I'd be doing the same thing if I had an iPod.

*~*

The reason I don't have one is complex. As my sister and brother have pointed out, I do have enough expendable income at this point that I could get one anytime I want. But they are also the ones who tell me how much they worried about me a few years ago when I was still living paycheck to paycheck. Now that I'm a DINK, I have savings and mutual funds and all that crap, but I still don't have an iPod because it feels like an irresponsible purchase to me. I really don't need one. I don't run often enough to justify wanting one, and when I gave it a lot of thought, I realized that that that would be its primary purpose. I don't belong to a gym anymore; we have an elliptical trainer and a weight bench in our basement and are shopping around for a good set of free weights. There's a TV, VCR, and a stereo right there. I have the means to listen to music everywhere else I spend my time (which would be work, and my car) so I would really only need a portable for running. And as I said earlier, I ain't running very much these days.

So it feels like I am being more mature and restrained by not buying something I want but really don't need. Never mind all of the stupid little impulse buys of $30 here and $45 there that add up to the cost of an iPod in a month's time. A couple of new throw pillows, cool placemats, some pretty lights for the deck, cute new sandals for me. Those are small purchases, or they're for the house so even though we don't really need them either, I don't feel as guilty as if I'd bought myself an iPod.

Is my Catholic showing?

It helps that I'm on the fence about which iPod I'd want to buy, too. The U2 one is just so cool and yet so pointless. A mini would suit me fine. But the U2 one is just so cool.

*~*

One of the aforementioned high school intern types sings along with whatever's on her playlist, aloud, whenever she's in the bathroom. My office is right across the hall from the bathroom, so I hear her every day (between her and the guy who hocks up huge loogeys every day, it's a restroom symphony around here). And I'm not kidding; she sings loud. Sometimes when she comes out, I want to pull out her ear buds and say, "you are aware that WE CAN HEAR YOU, right?" She's an average singer, but she's no Beyonce, a fact which of she seems blissfully unaware.

*~*