Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Audiobook woes again!



This past weekend I had enough time to do some significant weeding in the flower beds. Had irises that needed trimming and culling, as well as getting rid of the weeds that threatened taking over. Even though I enjoy the fruits of nice flowerbeds, I have to work myself into pulling weeds. Did a few gentle stretches, downed a big glass of water and steeled myself into the work. Had myPod inserted in my ears, with the right buttons pressed and got down and dirty. About 45 minutes into the new story, it stopped! What? It's not supposed to stop.




After a brief break to get up, take off garden gloves and finding some shade, I advanced the myPod (by holding down the button -- my fancy vinyl clip was in the house) past the part where it stopped. The story continued and I went back to my weeding. Some 15 minutes later, it stopped again. By now this was wearing thin. I don't want to take the time to stop what I was doing and move the dumb player past its points where it stops (remember this is the player that always goes back to the VERY beginning each and every time). The third time it stopped I just quit on it and turned on music. myPod has an FM tuner too. I might've preferred listening to the Twins game on the radio but there are lots of things I'll listen to on the FM band. Guess I'll have to check into the licensing on the audiobook to see if it expired yet -- it was a compelling story, but with its idiosyncracies and abrupt stops, it's not the download I can count on. I do want to listen to the story (I think I do anyway) so I'll re-check the bits and bytes and hopefully will make it work. Will update on this later ... sigh. In the meantime, I have to heal the blister from cutting back plants with a poor scissor.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Came up with a workaround

I ended up not using the alligator clips because I found a vinyl covered clip sort of like a clothespin. It didn't scratch the player, advanced the time quicker than my sore finger would've, and with my timer set (5 minutes per hour), I advanced it. When the timer went off, I was close to where I remembered stopping. Voila! It worked. And I finished the e-audiobook.

Not sure how it got off myPod, but in my computer's Windows Media software, I removed it from a playlist. Plugging in myPod to recharge the battery and sync it, somehow it happened (can you tell I have little faith in this technology?). Made a new playlist and sent the next title to it. The new title got there so I will have to find time to start listening to it. Next I have to figure out how to renew what I have "checked out." The 3 titles I checked out were optimistically checked out at the same time. I had no idea it would've taken me as long as it did to work out the technical machinations, listen to it, and consider the next title. Baby steps will help me become more confident, that's for sure!