Gadgetry

Last week I bought my first mp3 player, a Creative Zen V. I commute about 30 minutes to work each way, so I've come to rely on the radio and CD player to keep my mind running while driving. At first, I listened mostly to NPR (National Public Radio), which is a decent source for the high-level news stories. There are only four other stations within receiving distance. So NPR is really my only serious radio option. However, even that has begun to lose interest for me. Day after day of listing to the litany of our defeat in Iraq, with a few breaks here and there to outline how our top public officials are diligently focused on a presidential election that won’t happen for a year and a half. Occasionally a great story breaks through, but for the last year or so I've mostly listened to books on CD. In fact, I've nearly exhausted the Sandpoint library's small collection of CDs, so I needed a third option. Enter mp3 player.

Lucky for me, the library began offering a digital book service a while back. It's pretty nifty. You can log into your library account online and download media files to your computer. Then you transfer them to your portable player, and the files expire after 20 days. I'm just waiting to receive my FM transmitter, which will allow me to broadcast my mp3 player to my car radio.

4 comments June 13th, 2007