my second iPod

My first was a Mini, which I was quite happy with, until it failed to withstand the rigors of the 3100 Mile Race. It wouldn't hold a charge anymore, and could only run with an external battery pack. After the race, I twice tried changing the battery myself (a process, by the way that invalidates your warranty) without success.

I have had a couple of cheap mp3 players since; an AA-battery powere one that doubles as a flash drive, and one that looks like an iPod Nano clone, but with different electronics. I soon began to long for the unbeatable user interface that the iPod possesses, and after buying a 9 CD set of Sri Chinmoy's music in New York in August, I wanted one even more. Then I could listen to all of them when I was meditating without fooling around with a CD player. Okay, some might say I was entering into the desire-kingdom, but there was a higher purpose! I checked out the prices of iPods in New York, mainly focussing on the Nano. The flash-based memory means no hard disk to damage, and the electronics can be contained in a sleek casing not much bigger than a credit card. But, being a cheapskate, I asked a friend where I could find the best deal. He told me that a brand new model was rumoured to be coming out next month. So I decided to wait. Then out of the blue another friend offered to sell me his iPod nano. The price was to good to refuse. So now it's mine. 8 gigabytes of listening bliss.

Sure enough, upon my return to the Great Land Down Under (eg Australia), I saw an ad for the NEW nano- now with video playback! But in order to fit a bigger screen, they have sacrificied the elegant proportions of the device, now it looks boxier. I'm happy with the one I have. It may be ironic that I use such an ultra-portable device mainly for listening to music whilst I meditate in my room, but it's just so convenient!

On the subject of iPods, another friend discovered that there is now a 'classic' iPod that has 80 gb of memory- and costs about the same as what he recently paid for a 30 gb model. But then he admitted that he only had about 5 gb of music on his iPod anyway, so it doesn't really matter.