I find myself out of space on my iPod. I knew this moment would come, of course. Once I had less than a gig of space left, I knew it was only a matter of time. I wasn't too alarmed by the eventuality, but now that I am officially out of room, it's more emotionally draining than I anticipated. The agony, of course, is only intensified by the fact that there are products on the market that would make the problem disappear. iPods with larger capacity, that can store photos, even play videos. And they're smaller than my iPod! I want one so bad, but it just seems so wasteful to spend that kind of money to buy a replacement for something I have only had about ten months, which still works fine (despite being dropped--hard--onto concrete, twice). My mother gave me an out, though, hinting that she thinks it would be neat to have an iPod. I don't really know why she would need one, but she said it would be nice when she goes to visit my sister and her granddaughter. Because, you know, you need something to listen to to help pass the time on that grueling flight from San Diego to San Jose. So now I'm thinking, I buy myself a new iPod, give Mom mine as a Christmas present (load it up with her CDs, and maybe a few new ones), and I've sidestepped the moral issue of whether my behavior in this matter is wasteful. I'm just spending $300 on my mother for Christmas, though somehow I get the new product and she gets a used product with a rapidly deteriorating battery life (so I'm told, I haven't had any battery issues yet).

The waste isn't my main concern. It seems a good use of some of my recent gambling winnings (though my ugly turn at the casinos today makes it harder for me to treat gambling as a magic cash machine), and seeing as I use the iPod a lot and feel that the purchase of my first iPod was a life-changing event, who am I to begrudge a few hundred bucks? I mean, if I don't buy the iPod, I'm not sending the money to starving people in Nairobi. So, my main worry at the moment isn't so much that, but rather a concern that a new iPod will be released in early 2006, that will dramatically improve on the video iPod concept. So I'm tempted to hold out for awhile longer. Further complicating the issue, the UCSD Bookstore has the old iPod Photos on sale. So I can get a 60 gig iPod Photo for the same price as a 30 gig iPod Video. I don't really care about the ability to play videos, but I'd rather have the feature than not have it. But I'm more interested in space. So I think I'd go for the old 60 gig model over the new 30 gig. But for $100 more, I could get the 60 gig model with all the latest features. But $100 is not chump change, exactly. I'm leaning very heavily towards getting the old 60 gig model, but I can't quite make up my mind. I might swing by the bookstore tomorrow, after the Chancellor's Challenge, and see if I can take a look at the old iPod. Unless it's a lot bulkier than my 20 gig model, I can't see paying the extra money for the sleek new model. Of course, that sidesteps the question of whether I need a new iPod at all. But seeing as I'm going to the trouble of typing out this long rambling post just to talk myself into doing what I know I'm eventually going to do, I guess I've made my decision on that count.