Oh dear, it's been a loonng week, hasn't it? I don't know why it's been so long, nothing different has occurred and everything's the same. I'm so happy the humidity's abated, couldn't stand it this go round. I've been ripping CDs to the desktop computer and enjoying the quality of .wma files. I'm going to retransfer music to my MP3 player as .wma and do away with MP3 altogether. My ears discern degradation in the quality of the MP3 files - hissing and cracking. Yet, when I rip the same song in .wma, I don't have the digital artifacts. Go figure!

I'm glad competition has heated up in the hard drive-based MP3 player market. Apple's having to lower its prices on the iPod, which means Creative and Rio respond in kind. That, my dears, is fantastic news for us! Apple's selling the 20 gig iPod for $299 and Creative's 40 gig Zen is $249 after a $50 mail-in rebate. Now, I can get behind double the capacity at $50 less, can't you? I've been very pleased with Creative's quality, customer service and price value.

During the holiday frenzy, all three companies will pull up all the stops to entice us to buy. So guess when I'm buying? Yep, late fall or early winter. I already have a MP3 player, so I'm in no hurry. I don't fall into the "Gotta have it now to be cool" category, so I'm in no rush to part with my money. Also, I don't need the cachet of saying, "Look at me, I have an iPod!" I'm more about capacity/price ratio and a larger hard drive MP3 player is what I need. Especially, since I've been filling up on Podcasts and mash ups. These files are huge, but so entertaining and original that I can't do without.