In the space of about a week, I will have caught up technologically with most of my friends. After my parents gave me a 128mb MP3 player for my birthday, I naturally wanted a bigger one! The convenience of the tiny player was nice, but it didn’t hold many songs. It turned out A wanted the 40gb iPod anyway, so I looked around. We ended up getting a Polaroid PDP-602, which is a 40gb player and will probably hold every single CD we have! (Our collection isn’t that big.) A listens to music on her computer at work, so I will probably be using it more than she will - but on our road trip this June, we won’t have to pack a bunch of CDs, because the MP3 player comes with a car kit! I got the player from GlobalPCT on eBay, for just $200 - not bad for a 40gb player!

My other great technological leap is into the world of high-speed home internet. A got a raise recently, and we were waiting to see if the increase in her paycheck would be enough to cover cable net access (DSL doesn’t reach to us, so that wasn’t an option)…and when she checked today, it was enough! So on the way home from work I stopped at CompUSA and bought a wireless router ($15 after rebates) and a wireless USB adapter for the desktop ($20 after rebates). My laptop has wi-fi built in, and I have a PC card for A’s work laptop, which she brings home most nights. Once I got home I called Cox and requested the service; they said a professional install would cost $79 so I said I’d do it myself! A is going to pick up the self-install kit on her way home from work, so assuming all goes well we could be up and running tonight. (We got in on a good deal from Cox - a free cable modem to keep, and $20/month for the first three months.)

I also picked up two CSI games at CompUSA - $30 for the original and its sequel, Dark Motives, which was positively reviewed from what I’d read. It’s so nice finally having a computer that can actually do stuff!

Added, 11:15pm Fuck! I spent a good five hours tonight trying to get this set up - I even borrowed a known-to-be-working cable modem from A’s dad, and I spent a whole bunch of time on the phone with techs (one was pretty nice and treated me like I knew what I was doing, I must have used good geeky code words)…testing upstairs, testing downstairs…still nothing. So I am going to have to shell out $75 (?!?!) for a visit anyway. They’ll be here sometime on Monday from 7-9pm. I don’t fucking believe this. This damn thing should have been plug-and-play. I know I set it up properly. The problem is not my setup, and I shouldn’t have to pay $75 for this damn visit.