If you don't have an iPod, that's okay. If you own no portable mp3 player at the moment, that is fine. You probably will someday. I tell ya, if you don't currently own one, you might start saving up or thinking about getting one. What's the appeal? That iPods looks so stinking cool? Well, there's no denying that their sleek little curvy design is hot. But it's not the status symbol of owning one, it's the possibility of carrying your entire CD collection (or all that you'd want to listen to) on your person in the size (and about the weight of) a deck of playing cards. "Ripping" an entire CD (converting the audio files on the disc into compressed mp3 files) takes maybe 2 minutes or so. Therefore the task of ripping your entire CD collection is really not that much of a chore.
If you're going to get one, here's my advice:
Don't go the economic route and get an iPod mini (for $200). Although they are super slim and light, they only hold 4 gigs or 5 gigs of songs. I advise to ALWAYS rip at the highest bit rate setting (I think it's 128 kb per second), and the mini's capable of only holding a small portion of your large collection of CDs. 20 or 30 gigs of space will hold so many songs from your collection, that it'll make you puke. The extra space really makes a difference. Go ahead and spend the extra $100 and get the 20 or 30 gig iPod. Or, like me, go with the other brand. I have a Creative Nomad that holds 30 gigs. It's heavier and slight bigger than most mp3 players today. It goes for about $200. Dell has a smaller and lighter 20 gig machine that looks pretty slick and has a $200 price tag. Most all brands come with a fairly intuitive software package that makes ripping songs and loading them on the player pretty simple. One thing about the iPod that can be a pain is it wants to use the superfast firewire connection, which some older computers may not have -- or even the 2.0 USB port.
Enough about mp3 players. Let's talk about music! In one day I rec'd the new Weezer, the new Copeland (both really good), and some CDs I ordered from the BMG Music Club -- Coldplay live, Living Colour live, and The Essential Journey. Yes, I really did. And I played it on my way to work this morning. If I was a smoker, I would've held my lighter up all the way to work, as this power ballad band did their magic. The new Corrosion of Conformity is very intriguing in a spiritual lyric sense.
Psalm 101 has some interesting things to say. It starts off with praise:
"I will sing of your love and justice;
to You, O Lord, I will sing praise."
Then it goes into some personal promises:
"I will be careful to lead a blameless life...
...I will walk in my house with blameless heart.
I will set before my eyes no vile thing...."
This is open to interpretation. The standard of "vileness" will vary and change from person to person. For someone addicted to wine, that would be vile. Many people today would probably easily define pornography as a vile thing. For others, a comedy CD with gratuitous profanity would be vile. To someone who worked with a person that was cruel to animals, seeing a horse's bridle might be a reminder of vile things. For King David, it might've been an idol or a symbol of a false god. To a newborn Christian, it might be that crack pipe or marijuana leaf poster that's vile. Whatever it is, the disciple of Christ that exercises the simple discipline of "not giving that thing or habit a place" in their lives is what helps that person pursue a life of right-living.
Spiritual disciplines are important and one of the things they accomplish is affirming in a practical way that we are delivered from sin and no longer under its power. Fasting shows the disciple that he can tell his stomach that his head is in charge of the body, and it will decide when and what to eat. Sometimes it's drastic, but the result of knowing that you're not powerless to the circumstances around you (or even the grumblings of your stomach) is freeing and empowering.
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at May 17, 2005 10:23 AM