geek_girl

I've bought and/or helped others pick out several mp3 players in the past couple of years and have bought a couple in just the past few months alone, so I'm asking this much more out of pure curiosity about "Joe Answers-User" rather than actually looking for advice: what's been your favorite mp3 player (or players, if you can't pick just one)?

If you don't mind elaborating on why you've really liked it, that's probably at least as interesting to me. The 10 points will go to the best explanation of why. . . therefore "I love my ______ because it's cool/because that's what someone gave me" doesn't have a good chance of getting you more than the standard 2 points. (If that's all you want, feel free to still fire away.)

Since I'm asking as much from you:

*My* current favorites are a Zen Stone and a Sansa Clip. Bigger, fancier players do serve a purpose and I have one of those, but I'm not feeling a huge need to tote around my entire music collection all the time or really do much other than play music with it at present. Neither are iPods, which personally makes me happy.

* The Stone's nice because it's insanely idiot-proof and was quite good for something under $40. I'm also starting to really like the folder skip feature. I generally wouldn't bother to look at a screen and I'm in a hole with horrible radio reception how/where I'm using it, so that's not an issue.

* The Clip, on the other hand, is nice because it actually *has* a screen and has some clue of what to do with a playlist if it sees one. That makes it a nice everyday player. . . in my mind, there's no sense in using the $100-$200+ thing for maybe an hour or so at a time every few days if you can use a $60 one to do the exact same thing. You don't have much invested in it if you drop it or it falls off while out jogging, etc.

First off: yes, my dog is crated every time I leave the house. . . I can't help but think I'd come home to a totally destroyed house and quite likely a sick dog as well if I didn't, given the crazy little min pin's curiosity and boundless energy.

When I am at home, I have a bungee cord attached to the door to keep it from going closed. . . that way, she can always go in and out at will. What's been funny, now that it's starting to get warm enough again that she doesn't have to sleep under the covers in bed with me all night to stay warm, is that she often initially curls up in her crate to go to sleep. I've never once told her that she *can't* sleep in my bed, and she almost always eventually hops up and crawls in bed with me sometime while I'm sound asleep.

We sometimes hear a lot from the "anti-cage" people who think it's mean to put a dog into a box barely bigger than the dog. . . so I thought I'd see if anyone else has (or had) a dog who actually seems to LIKE his/her crate.

By "single", I apparently am not referring to legal status here.

I was wondering:

a) how many people out there either aren't or don't think they would, outside of any external forces placed on them, be bothered by being "alone" (not what I'd prefer to call it) at 30, 40, 50, etc. if potential marriage circumstances never just *happened* to them, and

b) how anyone who identifies with part a) deals with the frequent societal "ideal" that you're supposed to have finding a husband (or wife) and maybe having some kids way up in your top life goals starting at least sometime before your early 20's.

My experience seems to indicate guys have fewer pressures put on them by friends/family/society in this arena, although I'm sure that there are some of you men out there who can relate just as well to what I'm saying. I happen to fit into the type above pretty well, and I was just curious both for my quietly independent self and just as a general discussion topic.