zen micro

So yesterday I ordered my very own Zen Micro 5GB. I am pretty excited about this purchase. I'm looking for an adapter so I can play it with radio in my car. That way wherever I go I can listen to what I want to. It's been a long time I've been wanting something like this, and I'm happy I shopped around a bit for the Micro. It has some nifty little features that the ipod lacks, like a voice recorder, and an FM tuner/recorder. I will probably use those things rarely, but the very fact that I CAN is really cool to me. I'm switching to using Windows Media Player on my computer instead of iTunes, because I don't want to deal with the headache of AAC files and all that. As it turns out, WMP isn't half bad and I'm enjoying it so far. The Micro should show up at my doorstep tomorrow, and I am really stoked about it.

I had no idea that Reese Roper, of Five Iron Frenzy fame, is part of a new band named Roper. I'm listening to them right now for the first time - and I think I like it. It's rocky-punky, but thankfully doesn't sound like every other rock/pop/punk band out there right now. Reese can write catchy hooks and whatnot, and I can usually identify with his lyrics. Anyway I'm enjoying the album, "Brace Yourself for the Mediocre." Cool cover of "Still the One" on the CD too.

Picked up two books at Half-Price Books last week, for a combined total of ten bucks. They were having a sale, something I didn't know places that were already really cheap did. I got The Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton's autobiography, and No Man Is an Island, which is a collection of his essays on various things. I've heard a fair bit about Merton and how his books are great, so I'm looking forward to reading them. A quote from him...

"Without a life of the spirit, our whole existence becomes unsubstantial and illusory. The life of the spirit, by integrating us in the real order established by God, puts us in the fullest possible contact with reality - not as we imagine it, but as it really is."

I've got a little backlog of books now...no more purchases till I read these.