Armchair Pundits

Life's Lessons (Part 2)

In part 1, I described how I was reminded to be patient and trusting that things do in fact, work out. Also, in re-reading my post, I failed to mention, that even though my kids were crabby, they did remarkably well considering the circumstances. Another, key which is paramount & that I failed to mention, involves managing expectations. This is something I try and do every day with my clients and yet, I failed to heed my own counsel. Ah well, those are the reminders and now I move on to the second part....technology.

Technology is a wonderful thing. It provides us with many, many, many, invaluable and time saving resources. None-the-less, becoming enamored with technology may inevitably lead to new sources of frustration. Consider:

Recently, I received a mini-mp3 player, from a vendor that I do business with. It is akin to an Ipod Shuffle, but much cheaper and smaller, i.e., only holds ~14-15 songs, roughly an hour and five minutes. Now, for my regular readers, you must know that even though I blog regularly, I am not the techno-sophisticate you might think. I'll continue.

One fine Saturday evening, I transfer about 3 hours of tunes [those I can work out to] from my CD collection to my laptop. Having never done this before, I'm impressed with the ease and speed that said transfer takes place. Have I mentioned I love my Toshiba laptop?

Unfortunately for me, I left the mp3 player at the office, so on the following Monday, I spent about 30 minutes figuring out how to get the files onto the player, also surprisingly easy, but alas the player would not play. The problem? Had I disconnected from the USB port without signaling to the machine that I was about to do so? No that wasn't it, but I did learn that such actions are not recommended. I had the music in the wrong format. Ah....so the computer doesn't automatically convert to mp3 format? I see. If Lileks were reading this, he'd be laughing vigorously by now.

Well how do I set about converting to the right format? I went to the headwaters, meaning I asked a few more techno-versed friends (the Mikes), and I was directed to type my question into Google. I did so and was quickly ushered to a host of pages that had software to sell me.

Now, it is probably no surprise that I'm rather frugal and so I'm thinking: "Why buy software for a ~15 song playlist, on a free media device? Surely, there must be something I can test for free out there? "

There is and I found it. Unfortunately, the first installation, which took 11 seconds to download, was directed at Macs, which explained why I couldn't open it. The second program took to my machine, although, it took me awhile to locate where the heck on my computer I had saved it to.
Next the conversion process. I receive the first 30 selections free, afterwards I must pay 20 dollars to license the software. The ease of use with this particular program has lead me to conclude, that upon tireing of my current playlist--and just so you know, it RAWKS!--I will want to experience different playlists, so I will end up purchasing said software when I get to conversion number 31. At any rate, I go back to sync my playlist, did I mention it rocks? And I am able to do so in user-friendly fashion. Next, I go to listen to my player and it won't work.

"I don't get it! The songs are on the stupid device! What's the deal?" I know that right about now, all you Ipod owners are laughing at me in your best Bugs Bunny voice "what a maroon!" But hey! How was I to know that the computer would wisely create a file for my mp3's and that I would have both mp3 and wma files of the same songs?

Well, you guessed it. Post conversion, I synced the wrong files. I finally figured it out and the little guy really kicked out the tunes--nearly went deaf I did. Friday comes around, yes Friday (it took nearly 3 hours over the course of an entire week, but I figured it out), and I was ready to run.

What a glorious morning. I'm up early, and feeling great. The sun is shining, the dewpoints comfortable, the birds are singing, even though I am about to obliterate any ability to discern their melodious harmonies. I cannot wait to get out and run. I head off, the first song, making me feel like I should sprint for three miles.

I get about 3 houses down the block when my left earpiece pops out. No problem wedge it back in. A few more steps, and the right earpiece pops out. Wedge it back in. Another step, earpiece pops out again. You get the picture.

The stinkin' machine isn't well equipped for running with the given earpieces. Nuts! I was disappointed and after a mile or so of trying to keep the speakers in my ears, I gave up. Now I'm off to the big box retailer for some conventional earphones. This is supposed to be a luxurious convenience right? No longer do I have to hold the walkman of CD player. Even so, it sure serves as a distraction from the things that I really need to get done.

So my moral? Don't become to enamored with stuff. Stuff costs you money, stuff costs you time, which costs you money, and stuff can cost you missed opportunity.

By the way--did I ever tell you about my van? The power-windows motors burned out and now I can't get the driver's or my passenger window down. Wait till I tell you what that one is going to cost!

posted by Grisby @ 4:04 PM