fine whine

I've become a Pod person*.

For a long time I've wanted to own an iPod (to replace my 32MB mp3 player and the mp3-CD players thereafter) but not wanted to spend the cash Apple wanted for the little buggers. Even their knockoffs and competitors were pricier than I'd like, given that I wanted one with massive amounts of storage.

Well, now I have one and I didn't need to buy it or rob someone to get it. Through means I am not at leisure to discuss I now am the proud owner of a third-generation iPod, and have already begun filling it with the hundreds of discs I own and/or have ripped.

I don't think I'm using it the way Steve Jobs intended. Rather than using iTunes to buy downloads and organize my collection and synchronizing the player to the files on my hard drive, I'm using third-party software (haven't yet settled on one, or even found one I'd be willing to endorse) and using it as my primary storage for the music, with backups burned to data CDs.

After all, why do I need two large hard drives filled with the same music? It's inconvenient to load, but once I've got the music on the player that's the only place I need it to be. So this works for me.

I've even gone as far as replacing the battery myself. Before I replaced the battery I'd get maybe an hour from a full charge; now I get many times that. So even in a short amount of time I think I've come a long way. I have a ways to go, though. But it'll be fun learning to use it better, I think.

* The quote above comes from the movie Invasion of the body snatchers, though it concerns emotions, not portable music players. It seemed the most fitting.