Confessions of a Technological Illiterate

[rachelmanija]

My parents gave me an iPod for Christmas. Ten minutes ago, I finally managed to transfer much of my music to it and get it to play some. I have been steadily loading music on to my computer since I got it, but I kept finding that I was missing various pieces of technology/serial numbers/common sense/etc which I needed before the thing would actually connect to my laptop, let alone play anything.

I got it because I was planning to move to Japan in March (but then I sold my book, a state of affairs which has stuck me here doing rewrites, etc) and that's still the main use I see for the thing-- enabling me to take my CDs everywhere in the world without actually lugging them around. if only such a thing existed for the written word. (Audiobooks are great but don't count.) Still, I am listening to "Busby Berkeley Dreams" off the Magnetic Fields 69 Love Songs right now via the earbuds which are so teeny that it took me forever just to wrap the covers over them. It's pretty cool.

In other news, I find that the Perfect Piece of Luggage, the one which is exactly the legal size to be a carry-on and has a detachable laptop case, has a flaw. If I put my laptop, my karate gi, two DVDs, one week worth of clothing, one towel, a plastic case of toothbrushes and stuff, and one or two small obligatory gifts in it, I only have room for nine paperback books, and that includes what I can fit in my camera bag (personal item). This is freaking me out. Perhaps four shirts is sufficient for several months. After all, if I only bring one gi, I have to wash it every time I train, which means I'll be doing laundry at least three times a week. (Buying books in Japan is not a good solution. The English selection is small and very expensive.)

My main thought is to remove my DVDs from their cases and put them in a soft carrying case, and find suitably classy yet very small gifts. Pound boxes of chocolates are not hacking it.

ETA: Forgot to include iPod in packing calculations. Dammit. Well, it's pretty small.

Also forgot to mention plans of shipping any purchases made in Japan back to US, except for paperbacks which are readily available in US and which would be cheaper to abandon and buy again than pay freight for.

Comments

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

You say your camera bag is your personal item. Can you buy a tote bag, put the camera bag in that, and squeeze a few more books around them? A tote bag is always a legitimate personal item, I think.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

That is a brilliant idea, and I don't know why it didn't occur to me. I think I'll make inquiries about how big of a tote bag is OK (or just look at the sizes of the ones people are carrying on this flight) before trying it this time, though. But even a little more room would help.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

PDAs are da shiznit. There's tons of older out-of-copyright works on Project Gutenberg, you can buy downloadable books from fictionwise.com and other places, and if you look you can ... er ... acquire others. Not that I'd know anything about that.

Yeah, they're obnoxious to read on, but when you compare the size of one to the size of books and the size of your suitcase ... I was very happy that I could whittle the number of physical books I took to England last year down to four in the carry-on and ten in the PDA. :)

Plus every time I fly I make sure to read at least one page of Jane Austen from it just because it weirds me the hell out that when she wrote whichever book 200 years ago there was absolutely no way in hell she could possibly conceive that I would be reading it on a handheld device that holds a number of books, 35,000 feet above the Atlantic, traveling from North America to England in less than half a day.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Wow, I never thought of that either. I think I'll look into it. Thanks, guys!

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Just remember to check how long it'll last before needing new batteries or a charge - don't want to get halfway to Japan and run out of juice. ;)

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

I recommend the PDA option for your books, too. You can fit an awful lot more on it, and while the screen may not be the best for reading, at least you'll have lots to read.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

It's a good idea to ditch most DVD cases anyhow, frankly, since unless they are the very latest models they have a *lot* of wasted space. The very latest models only have a bit much wasted space. Besides, an adequate soft carrier is actually much less likely to be damaged or to damage the DVDs.