I updated my iPod today...

Don't know why, don't have any new music on my computer, just thought it was the right thing to do, I mean, you can't have an iPod and never plug it into your computer (other than for charging), right? This is coming from a girl who hasn't bought a cd in years, the last cds I got were burnt copies of German music, presents from friends there... But suddenly I'm a music techno-geek, well maybe i won't go that far, but with my mp3 player and iPod, it's certainly a little excessive. The thing is that I didn't want the iPod, I'd just opened my shiny new mp3 player, when I learnt I could get a free iPod with my new computer. The sales lady on the phone couldn't comprehend my reluctance, "but it's FREE" she exclaimed when I said I didn't need it. "But I don't need it! I just bought an mp3 player!" I protest. "Sell it, give it away, just take this FREE iPod!" is her argument. I give in. "Alright, but there really aren't any strings?" I feel I should still put up some resistance. I wonder why they're so desperate to give away these iPods. Are the new 1Gb Nanos such a failure?

I think I now know why they're free. There's so much STUFF, accompanying apparel, extra bits and pieces, accessories whatever you want to call it. All this MUST be bought, for one to own a present and correct iPod. So far I've only bought a cover, the cheapest available, but I was astounded to see the number of covers one could buy...Leather, plastic, solid, floppy, even packets of 5, so you can have a different colour for everytime people see you (do they think iPods sweat? Is it a social sin for it to wear the same thing two days in a row?). Then there are armbands, desk rests, speakers, etc etc. Then you get iTunes and the Music store which inevitably opens when you sneeze in the direction of iTunes. No wonder the lady wanted me to take the iPod. Apple banks on socially acceptable materialism, although that's no new news.

What's the difference between kleptomania and materialism? Both are an urge that one MUST have certain things (although I am no psych student, so I could just be making stuff up, but that's how I see it), but one is legal and the other illegal. One is theft, the other (technically) not, although think about what you steal from the labourers who are forced to make the latest things so that you can get your little hands on them as soon as you can get to the shops. Tenuous link, yeah, probably, but that's how my mind works!

Anyway, that's enough of a ramble, now my iPod is charged and ready for action, I'll leave you with a funny story about a gender challenged chook that caught my eye this morning as I was looking over the local newspapers of the world.


http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=29&art_id=iol1145436193214C200