August 1, 2004

Chinese iPod

COLUMBIA, S.C. – One of the cities most recently put on the “list of places to visit” is Shanghai. It doesn’t rank up there with India or Vietnam. But for whatever reason I just can’t let my iPod’s birthplace go unvisited.

Yeah, it’s some kind of whacky heritage thing, just like I need to make my way to Poland one of these days. …and Hungary, Romania, whatever. Just so I can say I’ve been there, seen it, and had a beer.

But the Shanghai one is bothering me. Perhaps because I tracked my iPod’s journey all the way from it’s native China to the exotic American South and got jealous. And the odd part is that when iPod gets here it won’t have a language barrier.

(That must be some kind of boasting platform for the English. I can hear them now in a crisp aristocratic accent. “That whole colonies thing was a sham. We’d known for years what the people in the New World were to do with their separation from Mother England. The war of revolution was a smoke screen, poppycock. It was put on. Certainly the deaths of thousands of soldiers were necessary for the illusion, but we’d planned it all. And because of England’s offspring’s successes the international language is mostly English.” That’s what they’d say with their noses raised 10 degrees above the horizon.)

Why did it have to take this long for something this useful to be created? This thing that is smaller than my wallet holds my entire CD collection. …and then some.

I’m glad to have the means to purchase it. Toys don’t make the world go ‘round, but they’re fun to play with. And this one actually has usefulness.

My favorite part of it is that it’s the newest, shiniest, coolest, fastest. All of that and it speaks more than just English.

- Rich