I now have a device in my home that plays compact discs, and I don't think I care for that. While I have still never purchased an actual CD player, I now have a computer that plays CDs. A couple of months ago when I was talking to LCG about getting a new computer I asked him if he thought I could get one that had a broken CD-ROM drive. I don't want a CD player! I don't like CDs. I can also play DVDs if I like. What? How did all of this technology get in my house?
My old computer couldn't do any of those things! For the most part, my old computer was a typewriter with a monitor. It was purchased in 1997 and there were lots of things it couldn't do but it didn't bother me. It could do everything I needed it to do. I had a text editor, a web browser, email, and an FTP program. The 1997 model was almost exclusively used for working on the web site. It couldn't do anything else! But I didn't care!
My printer broke in 1999, I never replaced it. The CD-ROM quit working in 2000, that just meant I couldn't play Sim Farm anymore. The floppy drive broke about a year and a half ago and that is when I realized that a new computer was moving from the want category to the need category. I like to be able to back up my files. But I am also stingy so I just plugged along with the old computer.
And then LCG started hassling me. "I want a logo! Make me a logo! I want a shirt! Make me a shirt with the logo!" Mind you, he didn't want his own logo, (although maybe I'll make him one anyway) he wanted a logo for this site. Well, working with Photoshop on my slow computer was not very efficient. Every time I tried to use Photoshop I gave up. On top of that, my browser was so old I couldn't shop online because it couldn't read the updated certificates of secure sites.
So finally I bought a new computer. The bottom of the line model I got has a processor that is ten times faster than my old one, it has almost ten times the memory and the hard drive is four times bigger. I don't know if it is more computer than I need, but it is certainly more computer than I am used to using. And it plays CDs.
I do own a few CDs, leftovers from when I had a spouse with a CD player. I've got a couple of Queen items, a Monkees box set, the first two Spice Girls records, and the Spacehog catalog. Oh, and the Bruce Dickinson solo album collection because LCG can't stop himself from buying them for me when he sees them used. He finds it deeply amusing that I like those albums. But now that I can play CDs, what is next? MP3s? I don't know if I am ready to take that leap. On the other hand...they might be very useful for this site.
Not so long ago I was thinking about a group (that may or may not have been R.E.M.) that I don't care for at all. They're not bad, I just don't happen to like them. And then the very next morning I heard a song (which may or may not have been Drive) that I like a whole lot. I like it so much that I was thinking it deserved a write-up about why it is so good. And then I abandoned the idea.
There are some very specific parts of the song that I like, but I don't have a copy of it so I can't go into the particulars. But...but...if I embraced MP3s I could go on over to iTunes, fork out ninety-nine cents, and have a copy of Drive. That might be nice, because I certainly won't be buying a copy of Automatic For The People any time soon. But now I could get a copy of that song without leaving my house. I love not leaving my house! (Yeah, I could have gotten a copy before, but I didn't have the sound hooked up on the old computer so it wouldn't have been helpful.)
So I figure that I might learn to enjoy MP3s, and I will justify it by only using them for site-related purposes. Plus it might help me circumvent buying CDs, and I strongly approve of that idea. Unless of course they are Bruce Dickinson albums.