I broke down and bought an MP3 player.

I'd lusted after a 40 gig iPod, but $399 was more than I wanted to spend. Plus, Apple has a music service called iTunes.

After getting my IRS refund, I started shopping. I found a nice 20 Gig unit at Dell, called DJ20 for $249. With a leather cover with belt clip, and a car charger, the total was right at $300. My tax refund covered most of it.

When the box arrived it was like Christmas! There were lots of carboard templates to hold the player in place, and all the accessories came in their own plastic bags. I scattered cardboard and plastic all over the place.

After charging the battery (the longest 2 1/2 hours in my life!), I installed the software, and began loading MP3 audiobooks and songs.

I thought I would fill the hard drive up in no time. All of those files fillup my computer's hard drive in nothing flat, after all. Maybe I'm being more judicious in putting stuff on there, but after a week, I've only got 4 Gigabytes filled, with 16 available Gigabytes. I've got about 200 songs, and 20 audiobooks. More stuff than I can possible listen to on my 7 minute commute to work. But, Boy! is it fun to play with.

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