The Earth-Toned Pill

I pride myself in being an outwardly-complicated person. I refused to buy a cellphone for the longest time, finally caving in and buying one in 2001 after I got activated by the Guard following September 11th. On the other hand, I love being up on the latest PC hardware developments, and if I can have a more high-end computer than my friend's running all the latest games, then I'm there.

But I drew the line at the iPod.

The simple truth is that I never got on the iPod bandwagon for one simple reason. I didn't want to be considered another card-carrying wannabe-trendy yuppie with an Apple logo sticker in the back window of his Volkswagen, listening to a podcast on his iPod while sipping on a cup of Starbucks. Nothing against great coffee (even though I don't drink it), but I'm just not one for mass market trendiness. In fact, I've always had a weird aversion to both uber-trendy preps and hardcore goths or punks or even [insert your social group here]. Balance is the stuff of the universe, so I guess thats why no one social group ever appealed to me. I guess I was a sort of social outcast among outcasts, or at least an outsider looking in. Enough about that though, back to the subject at hand...

Recently, I started using an iPod for what really was the first time, and I have to tell you that I don't know what the hell I did before I had one. I mean, really. It's clean, it's simple, it's fun, it's quite frankly pure genius. You can do virtually anything on the damn thing that involves digital media, except make phone calls!

Wait a minute, they covered that base already too...

Part of me feels like a moron for not having embraced the light sooner, but another part is chafing at the thought of joining the ranks of 'those people', as R.E. Lee put it. I guess I'm too old now to complain or worry about what's trendy, what's not and how I'm perceived, but truth be told, I do. In the end, I guess all that really matters is that I derive some joy from using the damn thing and damn what others think.

So with that said, screw you guys, I'm going home... (To create a playlist for my iPod so I can bring it to the gym with me and look cool during my workout while I listen to some sweet tunes)