In addition to getting my car fixed and looking up Visa info this past weekend, I also started to go OCD on ripping all of my CD's to mp3's.
Talk about a thankless task! No wonder I had put it off for years.
Actually, the most recent version of Windows Media Player (8, I think) is making quick work of the process.
It's just that I have so many CD's.
Now that I'm working on it though, I know I have to get through them all, otherwise, it'll take me three more years to motivate myself again.
On Sunday, after spending hours and hours going through music I once listened to religiously, though it has collected dust more recently, I finally decided on an mp3 player for my trip around the world.
And the winner is the Creative Zen V Plus 8GB Portable Media Player.
Pros
- extremely small, non-flashy, and discrete
- made of scratch-resistant, lightweight plastic
- 8 glorious gigs of memory
- low cost - only $144 shipped (through Buy.com w/$10 Google discount)
- FM tuner
- built-in battery (15hrs per charge) means less money spent on disposable batteries which is good for my wallet and the environment
Cons
- Creative players are no longer featuring FM recording (due to issues with recording industry)
- users have indicated the joystick control in the center can break off, and that player freezes often
- small 1.5-inch screen may cause me to go blind and/or lose my mind while navigating stored music
- built-in battery means I could find myself without tunes unexpectedly (I'm sure I'd survive)
- there's more I'll soon find out, because neither Circuit City, nor Best Buy, had a working version (those players must get manhandled in the stores, and they're too cheap to keep the display ones in working order; quite a shame for customers)
As I continue to slide CD's in and out of my computer drive, I'm beginning to wonder how I'll decide what music to bring.
I'd guesstimate that I have about 24 gigs in total.
I know there are people out there with far more.
And I'd have more too had I not sold so many of my CD's when I was a young lad trying to scrounge up extra cash from time to time.
