Z-mas Comes Early

A while back I made a major complaint about my most favorite electronic buddy being viciously abducted from my automobile, in the parking lot of my own residence. And it didn't even happen on a night when Perot Theater attendees were illegally using it. Sooooo...what to do??

Around that same time the new Zune HD was about to hit the shelves. But did I really want one of those? It only has 32 gigs.

Just 32? My "vintage" Zune had 30, and I'd only used 17 of those before it was kidnapped. Zune HD has a touch screen and all the latest bells and whistles-games and apps and bears, oh my. Eh....maybe. There's those little ones-the 4, the 8, the Zune HD 16.

Nah.

I wanted lots of storage, like the Zune 120. It comes in red. And it's ON SALE!!!

The Arkansas side Wal-Mart has a passel of them, at $229. Then it went down to $179. Hmm...get it now? No, I'll wait. More important things to buy. Christmas was coming soon. But trying to hook up a CD player to check the PA at shows was getting to be a real pain in the arse. Who still keeps a CD player in their rack these days?? Especially when it's so funny to watch the faces of karaoke "divas" trying to pass themselves off as real singers at festivals and they're told we don't have one.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!!!! It's even better when we tell them we don't have a CASSETTE PLAYER!!!!

Sorry...musical snob moment. They're rare. It'll pass.

Anyway, we're walking into Wal-Mart last Friday. Do I want to go ahead and buy my new Zune? Uh, yeah...well, no...maybe. I'll see when we get back to electronics. It's not like 120 gig Zunes are flying off the shelves. They'd had about ten of them locked in the display case since last summer. I knew I'd probably get one at home because DeQueen and Ashdown still had them at full price. (I thought about layaway, but Wal-Mart ditched layaway years ago. I'd heard K-Mart had brought it back because of the bad economy. They only had Zune accessories, not the Zune itself. At least, that was what was on their website. Target didn't have layaway either.)

Well, whadya know. They're marked down to $125. Who needs Thanksgiving dinner? When I can have Christmas now!!!

So I flag down an unsuspecting Wally-World employee, and ask if she actually does work in electronics, and she replies with one of those Inspector Clouseau-inspired answers, "No, I just wander around in here." Or something kinda like it. (Well, you never know. Every time you see someone with a navy blue shirt and khaki pants meandering through the aisles and ask them for help, they will always say, "I don't work in this department." Tell me I'm wrong! I dare you!)

Well, she managed, somehow, to plop herself all the way down onto the floor to unlock the display case, and I wondered if Don and I would need to call 911 to help her get back up. (Wasn't there a commercial about that once??) She rang us up, all the while jabbering about wanting to go home. We declined the yearly replacement plan, then she answered a phone call inquiring about Rolling Stones albums. Forty Licks and...and...she couldn't remember the other one two seconds later, so we tried to help her out. I can't remember myself now. I think she was due for another dose of Aricept, being a little on the batty side. Too bad the purchase of this Zune couldn't have been more like that of my first one, with this particular associate's behavior. I guess luck like that happens once every three years.

So, yippee!!! I have a brand new, bright red 120 gig Zune. I can put even more songs on it that I will probably never listen to. I'll put it on shuffle like I always do and every fifth song will prompt a "What the hell is that?" response. My Zune is like a box of chocolates: You never know what you're gonna get. Maybe I should call it a "Gump." Or a "Gune."

From Blogger Pictures

At home, while waiting for the ravioli to bake, I fired up the laptop and pried open the box while Don turned on DVR'd episodes of "Stargate Universe" and "The Mentalist." It would take a while for the battery to charge, and my software needed updating for the new player. Microsoft finally added a step that says, "If you want to delete something from your computer and keep it on the Zune, please choose "Manual" sync." Finally!! Stuff would not mysteriously disappear anymore!! Yay!!!

That, and the fact that there were times when the damn thing just didn't want to turn on, were usually the two biggest complaints about the Zune. It used to bug the crap out of me. And album information turning up wrong. My Hootie and the Blowfish Greatest Hits CD always showed up as Fleetwood Mac's Rumours. Then it became the Blue Oyster Cult Essential Collection. Weird. But now that you can assign individual tracks (like those from a burned CD) with the correct info, that can easily be remedied.

(Except for last night when the Duets Soundtrack showed up as a Pink Floyd album. Don't know what happened there. I'm ever so anal about these things. You've seen those "Help me, I'm surrounded by nerds!" messages Don's been posting? Yeah, it's kinda like that.)

Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur...

Once the player was charged, I added the playlist that we use between sets, then some other music, and some pictures. I liked how much easier the controls worked, and that there's a clock on the main menu. It didn't some with stupid videos by obscure European artists. There's a longer sync cable and three colors of earbud covers. And you'll never guess the first song I listened to. Song about a fish. Or Sarah Palin.

Chung-chigga-chung, chigga-chung, chigga-chung, chung-daa-daa-daa....weeee-ee-yee-yeeee!!!

I meant to choose "Crazy on You," but I forgot.

Doesn't matter. I'm back to not having to carry around CDs in the car. It was easier to get through my treadmill mile because I could hear music instead of turning up the TV so loud. We were able to check the PA much easier on Saturday at Hopkins. Wonder if I'll be able to fill up all 120 gigs of storage? Granted, that after the last Zune update when HD came out, my entire mp3 purchase history completely disappeared, along with the Zune points I still had. Oh well. I'll still take it over an iPod any day of the week. The funny thing about Zune is that people either love it, or hate it. There's no in-between. I loved my old one and I love this one already. There are times when I am quite easily entertained, even for a nerd.

Thank you, Santa!!