Rio Diamond MP3 Player circa 1999

I consider myself on the cutting edge of technology, if only a few steps behind because of my cheapness. However, I thought I went all out on this gift for a girlfriend in college: A Rio PMP300 MP3 player, one of the first of its kind. It cost a pretty penny, and could hold maybe 12 songs, in other words, an album's worth. I can understand that deficiency, but what I couldn't understand was the battery cover that was possibly the worst designed battery cover in the history of battery covers. Luckily, my roommate was an EE major, and proceeded to fix it with some cork, at least temporarily. Dude was like MacGuyver, no dude was better than MacGuyver!

LP Record

Still pissed I missed the age of vinyl records.

The Graduate LP Cover Art

Yeah, obviously don't own the copyright on this image. Producers had to love all the room they had to play with on an LP cover. Literally acres of space. Well, not literally...you know what I mean. Then we went to cassette tapes, where there was literally no room to put any art. I remember you could unfold the paper insert for some illustration, but that was pretty lame. CDs were a little better, and at least proportional, but nothing beats a record cover, and platinum, gold, etc. albums are still given out as records because they are so BIG.

Rap Collage

Won this "rap collage" at an unofficial dance competition for a Ska-Punk band in college (my competition was someone wearing a California Raisin costume; that cat could groove). For years, this poster provided great fodder for conversation during parties where we all tried to name everyone shown. I think we had a master key at one point, but lost it in the fog of time. I used to keep this TIME magazine article up next to it as a pseudo "who's who." This image is not for reuse as I do not have the copyright, just reviewing it here as fair-use. The artist is Micarelli and it turns out you can still buy copies.

Ear Buds

I may be done with ear buds. Weren't we told as kids never to stick anything bigger than our fists in our ear? They never fit right, possibly because my ears seem to be different sizes. Too bad symmetry is supposed to be attractive to the opposite sex. My nostrils are also a different size. In fact, I don't think anything lines up correctly on me. I did finally spring for more expensive ear buds, instead of the ones that came from apple or I found laying the street. Of course, "springing" to me means $20. Amazon had some good deals on noise canceling ear buds I wanted to use on airplanes, and these fit the bill for the price range. I like the cord is non-tangle, but they still weren't loud enough or noise-canceling enough.ho came up with this idea anyhow? How long have these been around and has their time passed. Over the head earphones are making a huge comeback.

Over the Ear Headphones

Not willing to dive right in, I spent $5 on these over the ear headphones at a place that ends in "below." They work rather well. You can turn up the volume and just lay them on your neck to use them as sort of local speakers. There is one obvious downside: portability. Now I am not cool enough to wear this around my neck when boarding a plane or in any social setting, really. What I need is headphones disguised as a neck pillow. Now that is the ticket!

Spanish Classical Guitar

Got this classical guitar on a high school trip to Spain thinking I could make the jump from piano to guitar, no problem. I ended blaming my inability to play on the strings being so far apart. This thing still has sand in it from when I took it to the beach so a friend could serenade the ladies for us. Says it is a "La Roca" whatever that means. The case is the best part, and garnered me much attention on the way home from these girls from Texas.

Fender Stratocaster Guitar Copy

This is my Fender copy made by Lotus that I got while in college thinking that I could learn to play the guitar (again). Instead, it sat in the corner of our dorm room/apartment and gave the allusion to the few lucky girls who made it that far that maybe I played guitar. My bro-in-law, who is a good guitar player, has restrung it for me and got me a mini Marshall amp. My fingers just don't do right, however. At least I think this is a Strat copy; the headstock looks different, but I suppose that is why it is a "replica."