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Today's rambling: Darn defective merchandise!
Written on Tuesday, Feb. 08, 2005 at 8:08 p.m.
while feeling a bit
The current mood of Berry at www.imood.com

I was on such a roll with my exercising. I went every day last week after classes, and even went out Sunday night to do some time on the elliptical and in the weight room. And then yesterday...my damn MP3 player broke. It's a Rio Forge, which Mom had bought me for Christmas. The one that she actually bought me, after it was turned on, just seemed to 'short out' whenever I tried hitting the volume button. After awhile, it wouldn't even turn on anymore. So, thinking that I was just unfortunate enough to always get that one defective item, Mom took it back and exchanged it.

This second one worked fine throughout the rest of my holiday break (I listened to a couple of the pre-recorded songs after getting in bed, hehe), and then all throughout my first week of working out. My workout isn't rough by any means, so it's not as if I was banging the thing around. But during the week, if I accidentally tapped it against something, or even if I just pushed a button...the thing would turn off and I'd have to turn it back on again. Then yesterday, I hit a button and it shut off and stayed that way. I couldn't--and still can't--turn it back on again.

It's a simple enough matter to just give it back to the store and get a refund. But I know it kind of upset Mom on some level, because she's SO anxious to get me presents I really enjoy. That sounds stupid and materialistic, I know. But it's not that. I think it's something deeper than that, but she expresses it in the form of material objects. It's not like she stayed awake crying or anything yesterday when I called and told her what happened, lol! But especially when it comes to electronics, she tends to feel stupid because she doesn't know what's going on. It's not even like this problem has anything to do with her. Hell, I wouldn't have known all this if I'd been the one buying that MP3 player!

As it turns out, I'm not the only one who's had this problem. I went to Amazon.com last night to look for a new MP3 player, and I decided to look at the reviews for the Rio Forge. Almost all of the reviews I read contained the same problem that I described. There is NO way I will ever buy another player from that company. Their other models had some pretty scathing reviews as well. So in the end, I got a lower-end model from Creative Labs, for about $99 (which is somewhere between $30 and $50 less than what Mom paid for the Rio). It has more space than the Rio does (and I didn't even use up all the space on this one), and it still has an FM tuner...though I really didn't use that much anyway. I don't really need much by way of special features anyway, since I'm only using it when I go to the gym.

It still makes me kinda sad though, in a silly way, because there's mah little MP3 player, tossed and dejected on the floor. It was a freakin' great little thing while it was working, but I'm not going to pay more money to get it "refurbished." A couple of the reviewers at Amazon said they had to pay a ridiculous amount for this to be done, even with the warranty, and the thing STILL didn't work for them! So hopefully we can just send it on back to the store and get the money back.

Meanwhile, that means I'm going to have to bring my Discman with me to the gym...which isn't TERRIBLE, it's just a pain in the rear. I was scrambling around this morning trying to find my AA batteries, but I have no idea where they are. And I don't really know where my sport headphones are, either. So today I wasn't able to go to the gym (I have to have music, because otherwise I have nowhere to focus my attention and I get bored really easily). Even though there was that bit of relief that I wouldn't have to spend an hour sweating and tiring myself out, I was surprised to also feel somewhat guilty and lazy. But oh well. I'm going to go look for those headphones now, and I'll just go make up for lost time tomorrow!

I just hope Amazon comes through for me again and ships that little MP3 player in a hurry! It's so NICE to have my hands free when I'm walking the track!

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