What makes you happy ?

A couple of months ago I told J that my Zen Micro wouldn’t hold all the music I wanted. So I bought a Zen Vision M.
That same player now has almost 3000 tracks in it, including Now 1-63, Robbie Williams, Sugababes, Kelly Clarkson and other equally wondrous sound creations. It has space for a whole heap more. This means it’s not mine any more….
This morning J asked if there was a way to have a HD but no computer that could play the music. Like a HD stereo system. There probably is a way but I couldn’t find a cheap way. But I did have a spare speaker system for a computer and I did have the Zen. So now she has a device she can use, a device that has good screen contrast and with controls that aren’t too bad for her and a device that can go anywhere she does such as hospital appointments. She’s happy.

And I have an excuse for another gadget :)

Lord of War
+ DVD Shrink
+ another piece of software
+ Windows Explorer
+ Zen Vision M
= me very happy indeed.

The Zen I had was full of podcasts I used at the gym so seeing the Vision M at a lower price I convinced J that me owning a new shiny gadget was very much in order. Amazingly she agreed. So yet again the PC triumphs.

A friend came round. He has a phone on a contract and he likes to have the latest one. He had an LG Chocolate which he thought was cool, I didn’t like. The next model I forget – but now he has the N95.

I want one.

It is really really nice.
I can’t afford one.
I can’t justify one.
I really can’t justify one .. but I could moblog better ..
But I want one.

It’s got real buttons!
It’s by a company that knows what they are doing.

If I had the cash to completely and utterly waste then J would take it off me and tell me I didn’t need it. And she’d be right. Doesn’t stop the want though :)

Yesterday was the occasion of the bi-annual garage clean / sort.
I found my Sony MiniDisc player complete with several MD’s (AJ – I have a shiny blue disc full of VNV Nation. I’ve learned to smile since so do you want it back? ;) ) and it all appears to be in working order. I have no idea what to do with it though. None. I recall saying to drDave many moons ago that the MD was cool and that mp3 players weren’t that hot. He said that as Japan had moved so would everyone and he was not wrong. Be good to have something to use it for. (I have the same problem with my Psion 5, it too just sits there unemployed.)

I have a couple of boxes of books in there and as I’m down to my last book – De Niro bio – I dug around. Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff is excellent. Totally recommended for everyone. Brings necessary perspective to tasks. Another was Generation X. How to get attention – make your book cover bright pink. I’ve read it before, I’m sure I’ll remember key parts but it’s time to read again. In – I think – 2000 I was running a group home on the outskirts of the city and one day on the way in bought a copy of the now-defunct Arcade magazine. With it came an abridged paperback of Game Over. If you are into videogames and you haven’t read it consider this an essential read. It’s also an increasingly rare one – a UK seller has it in for £36.27. Very good book.
Lastly was Microserfs. As I grabbed this and other books it fell open at page 340. And what do we have on there? A tag cloud. Okay so it’s called a ‘subconscious file’ but it looks like a tag cloud. For some reason I found that very amusing. I also thought it was an excellent book and it too is now queued for re-discovery.

And I’ve cleared a section of shelving for the video games. Each system (Megadrive, SNES, N64, Lynx, some GB/GBA/GBC, PS, DC) needs a box of it’s own. Dust is easily removed but deterioration of the boxes and carts due to being moved around isn’t so good. I think I need to trawl ebay for some classics too.

Great demo of computer controlled text using flames. It’d be a reminder while cooking – “What’s on the end of the fork again?” (src: A Welsh View).
You could lie it flat and have a game of BurnBurnRevo :)

We need them to make this, and I need a Donate buton so you can all buy me one :) This is droolingly gorgeous