Carpooling with Respectable English Magicians

I'm currently "reading" Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell on my way to and from work. I received an early Christmaas gift from The Boy of a flash player and a subscription to audible.com, and all my wildest audiobook dreams have come true. The flash player is a tiny little thing about the size of the remote I use to unlock my car doors (but it carries something like 16 hours of audiobook). In fact, I carry it on my keychain, and on occasion find myself, arm outstretched, starting and stopping an audiobook rather than letting myself into the car. Despite that minor confusion once and awhile, I adore the little thing. I also adore the iPod, but it is clumsy to use while driving, and I tend to forget to lock the buttons, so I unexpectedly flip back and forth between tracks. Whereas the pod needs to be placed somewhere I can control it, and where it won't fly off the seat at a sudden stop, the flash player stays on my keychain, and I simply plug the cord from the tape deck into it and control it from there. eee!

I find myself humming the refrain from the post-credits wedding sequence in Napolean Dynamite where Kip earnestly sings to his bride, "I love technology/ (reassuringly) but I love you more, you see/ but I STILL love technology... always and foreeeever.

Technology I will take a little longer to completely warm up to is the Bluetooth headset for my cell phone. I like that there are no wires. Ever since Pinnochio, the world has known that "no wires" is quite a good thing. But I find that I clutch at it for fear it will fall off my ear. I find that it takes longer to apply the headset to my ear than it does to simply pick up the phone and make a quick call. I'm sure I will get better at it. Once it's on and I'm chatting hands-free I love it. Eventually I'll adore it like I adore my flash player.

Always and foreeever.