train wreck

Okay, there is positively no knitting these days. Work is a train wreck. Several other factors are all piling up on the train wreck. Like, another paper due in that same class that causes me great pain.

The Spanish Phrase of the Day is gone. It's been replaced by this. Isn't it cute? I got this, my very first mp3 player, for waaaaaaaaaay cheap from Buy.com--$50. I've been watching their sales, waiting. It's a SanDisk Sansa m250. It's got an oh-so-generous 2 gig! I've downloaded the Pimsleur Spanish Course from my library's NetLibrary, and I have Spanish lessons while walking home or on my afternoon walks. In fact, I justified its purchase as exercise equipment. Like good athletic shoes. I really didn't want/need many features in my mp3 player, but I've discovered this one lacks an important feature. I can't bookmark my audio files. This means that I can't save my spot in the middle of this 7-hour Spanish class. They only way I can preserve that spot is to turn off the player while playing the file, and to only play the language course. If I ever play something else, I lose my spot. Even worse, it takes forever to fastforward. The other day, I had to rush home during my work day to grab something I'd forgotten. I brought along my spanish class, only discover I'd lost my place. I started fastforwarding, and I continued through the entire walk home. When I got home, I was at 1 hour 45 min into the file, and I had to continue fastforwarding through half the walk back to work! I haven't lost my place since, but I can't ever switch off and listen to music. What a pain! Beyond that, I'm fairly happy with the lil thang. I was very confused when I got it because the documentation talked about the rechargable battery but not about how to recharge it. I googled until I found forums discussing this player, and naturally other people asked the same question. Turns out it recharges through its proprietary USB cable!! Better not lose that!