If youive read any of my previous ramblings, then youive likely read my lament about buying an iPod. Budget constraints continue to leave me iPodless, though I have had the occasion to play with one for a while. All that did was make me want one even more. So, in essence, Iim worse of than I was before.

You know how it seems that thereis always something that gets in your way just when you are about to achieve a long sought after goal? Such is my karma, it seems, because every time I scrape together enough soda bottles and pennies found in the gutter to purchase portable digital music bliss, some need will arise like a tree stump-weilding ogre, and bar my way to iPod nirvanna. Iim not a poor man, mind you, I make a fair wage, but I donit make enough to treat US$300 as pocket change. So, I grouse a bit after enviously eying iPod people, stare longingly at iPod ads on the tube, and start looking for pop bottles and pennies all over again.

I heard the rumors about a new iPod before MacWorld-SF this past January, and I did get a little excited. Those rumors claimed that Apple would release a dinky music player for around US$200. Depending on how dinky, I could see myself picking up one of these new players, if, indeed, the rumors were true. As it turned out, the rumors were both true and false: Apple did announce a new, smaller player, but the price tag was a tad higher than US$200.

The iPod mini, at first, seemed like a device looking for an audience to me. The price was the biggest point of confusion: For US$249 you get a music player thatis lighter and smaller than the iPod, but not substantially so, and you get 4 gigabytes of storage, which is substantially smaller than a full grown iPod costing a mere US$50 more. For the life of me I couldnit see who would pay for such a device. As Mike Tyson might say about such a circumstance, "Itis ludicrous!"

Well, Iim going to buy an iPod mini, a blue one, and when I get it, Iill like quote Mike again and proclaim that, "Iim ecstatic!"

Mike Tyson really has a way with word.

Many of you, including Mike, may be wondering why, on Earth, would I buy an iPod mini-me. In truth, I wondered that myself, especially after listing all of the reasons not to buy one; but my dear grandma once told me that it is usually best not to pick oneis nose in public, and it is always best to look at a problem from all sides. So, as I have listed reasons for snubbing the dinky digital player from Apple, so shall I list reasons to buy one.

My reasoning for seriously considering an iPod mini goes like this:

1. The iPod mini is cheaper. Itis still US$50 over my US$200 budget, but if I rob my daughteris piggy bank and go without lunch for a month, I can swing it.
2. Do I really need 15 gigabytes or more of portable storage in the guise of a music player? I currently have about 300 CDs and I have no intention of ripping all 300 into my Cube. Just ainit gonna happen. What I will do is rip whole albums and songs that I like and create a nice little playlist of favorites for road trips and excursions to the beach. If 900+ of my favorite songs arenit enough to keep me happy for a day in the sun, then something is seriously wrong with me.
3. I get to pick a color. Donit get my wrong, I like the looks of the original white and silvery iPod, but Iim an expressive sorta guy; I like things just a tad off-center. A green or blue iPod mini speaks to me. It says, "Use me, Vern! Use me until my batteries run down!" I just donit hear that from an iPod.
4. I could join the ranks of the exclusive iPod People, and even be more exclusive than they. Itis a shame Steve Jobs didnit push for making the earphone cables a matching color, that way I could be instantly recognized at an iPod mini owner as I bop down the street.
5. The iPod mini is bleeding edge. Itis got the latest in wee hard drives in it, yet it retains all of the coolness of the original iPod. Schweet!
6. And last, but not least; I just want one, dammit! Thereis nothing wrong in admitting that I prefer my iPod with some color on it, and that I like that itis smaller, even if it isnit that much smaller. Itis cool and I want one. So sue me!

So, since Friday, February 20, 2004, at 6PM, I can buy an iPod mini. Some say that Apple missed the boat on the iPod mini by selling it for US$50 too high. I say my daughter will never miss the change, and I could stand to lose a few pounds.

We must have our priorities, after all.