nattering

January 25, 2007

Fuh. Ree. Zing. Five mile walk did me much good, but my hands apparently got colder than I realized and still hain’t warmed up. Still, it was really gorgeous out and I’m very glad I went for a walk. I feel better. I’ve got to just do that in the morning, I think. Blood stirring and all that. Stir stir stir. I keep waking up at 6:30 anyway. Perhaps I should just convince myself to get out of bed then. I don’t know how to *do* that, mind you, short of applying a sharp electric shock or something…

I’m nearly at 100 pages on the manuscript, though. That’s something. :)

I started looking at little MP3 players yesterday, ’cause commenters are correct in that it’d be more handy than a CD player. There are some nifty lil’ tiny ones that are flash drives, which, given my amazing ability to lose connecty cords, seems like the right way to go about it. I may order one in the next day or two here. I might try looking in Cork first, but I’m kinda guessing ordering one will be the way to go.

Anyway, having mentioned yesterday that I was looking at MP3 players, wanted to know what music library I used. After he explained to me what that meant (iTunes, Rhapsody, some others, I guess), I said I didn’t use any of them (and I honestly still don’t *understand* why they’re helpful or something you’d bother with, aside from having the vague impression they might help you find new music you’d like). He thought that was very strange, but there’s a terrible truth about me: I’m really not much of a computer or gadget geek. (, who is waiting for me to set up my new microphone headset, can attest to this.) I’m even less of a music geek (as is aggravatingly aware. To wit: everybody else in the world apparently said, “Oh look, Roger Daltry is playing a character on the Highlander tv show.” I, however, said, “Hey, did you know the guy who plays Fitz is the lead singer of the Who?!” when I first saw them performing on TV, some three years after he played the Highlander part.), so I really can’t fathom what I’d be doing with these mystical music library things.

I think I had some kind of point when I started typing that paragraph, but I’ve since forgotten what it was. So I’ll move on to the next part of our exciting installment, which is to say that having walked five miles or so today, I’m actually going to go into town and try to find some shoes on Saturday. Wish me luck.

Oh, and Ted passed his test that allows him to apply for a driver’s license. The Irish do things very oddly, so they do. :)

ytd wordcount: 20,700
miles to Dunharrow: 72

7 thoughts on “nattering”

  2. “Hey, did you know the guy who plays Fitz is the lead singer of the Who?!”

    And you call the Irish odd?

    I’m sort of with you on the music library software issue. I seem to be the only person in my office who doesn’t love-love-love iTunes. Yes, it’s nice to have album covers and playlists and all that, but it’s a real resource hog in my experience and doesn’t play nice with some other applications I use.

    I have a Creative MuVo (now called, confusingly, a Nano), a 1GB MP3 player that connects via a USB cable. I know you’re not keen on cables, so maybe one of those plug in directly models would be better. How much music do you want to carry around?

    Also, I found that having a MP3 player really upped my listening to non-music stuff: podcasts, talks, conference presentations, audiobooks and the like. They’re great!

  3. I don’t use iTunes either. CDs. Now, they’re the thing. That’s a proper music delivery system. If the computer dies, well, I’ll just rerip off those silver discs.

  4. Maybe I’m a moron, but I don’t understand, even if you don’t want to buy music online (which I love doing because A) it’s cheaper, B) I can buy one song instead of an overpriced album of stuff I don’t want, and C) it’s so much faster than going to the store or waiting for delivery)…

    Okay, that will get confusing, so let me start over. I don’t understand how one gets music onto an MP3 player WITHOUT having a music library program like iTunes.

    I like iTunes because I get tons of free podcasts to listen to while I walk, too, and it’s so easy to just download them automatically.

  5. I could go back and put this on the post it really belongs on but.. I’m already here!

    I just downloaded Coffee Break Spanish from Itunes. Each show is approximately 20 minutes long. It’s free but there’s supplementary stuff on their web site that you have to pay a small fee for. I’ve only listened to the first four (there are 13 so far) so I can’t say how the later ones are but I’d say it’s an ok start. I mean, they aren’t trying to teach you anything difficult (verb conjugations!) but it’s fun to listen to in the car. The people who make the podcast are from Scotland so they’ve got fun accents even when they aren’t talking in Spanish. And then when they do talk in Spanish they’re using a Spain-Spanish accent that is different from the Mexican-Spanish I know (there’s a lispy quality to some of the sounds).

  6. My I say that I love my little Sony Walkman mp3 player? With 2 gig, I’ve got it loaded with two novels (ripped from library cds), about 15 cds of music, plus 40 hours of downloaded podcasts of various types. And it looks cool, I have a neck strap for it, and it plugs directly into my computer’s USB port and can be used as a thumb drive as well.

    The one I have is here

  7. PS The rechargeable battery lasts up to 28 hours on a full charge, and it includes an FM radio receiver. Great for long walks.

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