upgrading

I'm not an early adopter of anything. I tend to observe for a bit and see how a thing develops and what people think of it and what they do with it, before deciding if it's worth my time, effort, and money.

Take smartphones, for example. My biggest beef with them is that I don't necessarily want to be "connected" and "available" at all times. I find that idea rather scary, to be honest. And I don't use my cell phone much at all anyway - so rarely in fact, that the phone company called me to ask if I wanted a lower-cost package since I always had plenty of minutes left over every month (I took them up on that offer).

iPods are the exception. I was a fairly early adopter of the iPod, largely out of practicality. At my last job, I traveled somewhat regularly. I can't read in any kind of moving vehicle because I get an instant nauseating migraine. Before mp3-style audiobooks were available, I would lug at least two books' worth of CDs and a CD player in my carry-on luggage to have something to listen to while tooling around in the aforementioned moving vehicle. With the up-and-coming (at the time) audible.com, I felt fully justified in buying an iPod for both efficiency and sanity while traveling.

However, I have not, until recently, upgraded from my little iPod Shuffle. It's traveled all over the world with me and was even treated to a UK/Europe plug adapter for charging AND a handknit case to hold the headphones, pod, and charger.

One thing that had got me leaning toward some sort of upgrade recently was ebooks. I love the concept - portable ereaders are great if you're waiting in line or for an appointment or a meeting or want something to read while eating lunch or lounging in a coffee shop and don't want to tote around a book in your briefcase or purse. (I have been known to have a book in both.)

So it was a nice surprise to get a 32 GB iPod Touch from my mom and stepdad for Christmas. I've already loaded audible onto it with a handful of my favorite audiobooks (seriously, if you get stuck somewhere, you want Stephen Fry narrating a book to you - really, you do; I know of what I speak; your blood pressure will thank you). I dived into the ebooks as well - some Wodehouse, some Gaiman, all the Jane Austen novels, and the complete works of Oscar Wilde: my physical copies of each set of the latter two are doorstopper-worthy, so I'm tickled by the idea that I can access them in their entirety on this credit-card-sized device. I wonder what the Lady Author and the greatest aesthetic writer who ever lived would think of that?

And just for kicks and giggles, I added a stash of Crowded House, Keane, Zoe Keating, Apocalyptica, Kate Bush, Pomplamoose, and Florence and the Machine songs. I'm toying with the idea of loading the Bach cello suites onto it as well, but which version do I want? And then Mom and Steve also sent me the complete works of Chopin...

And Ben and Emily told me about the cello tuner and metronome apps...

And Autumn and Erin told me about to-do list and grocery list apps...

Oh dear, I've adopted, haven't I?

Anyone know where I can donate my iPod Shuffle?