unfaithful (and chintzy to boot!)

I must admit, I've been (gulp) dabbling with Typepad. My natural frugality (ergo Blogger) has been trumped by ease of use. But this morning, I finally found some clear instructions on how to use the free image posting here to upload affinity badges/buttons to place on my knitblog sidebar without stealing bandwidth. I will try it later. With blogger, flickr and gimp and my own stumbling around with html, perhaps I can actually maintain an all-FREE blog. (It's sick, but when I went to work half-time as a trainer and even-less-time as a family counselor, I began to play the "how cheap can I do this?" game, and my mother's teachings came flooding back to me.) But I declare: I have never ever file-shared mp3 files, despite being surrounded by college students who seem to think stealing is justified if you're "poor." (Just to be clear, we're the kind of college where "poor" is what you see a mile or two from our campus, but hardly within its dormitories.)

I do love the ability with blogger to mess directly with the html code, because I am dreaming of having a new moonarts photo as a banner on my knitblog (she's posting FREE images of knitting needles soon!), and I found a template awhile back that I'd like to use here--Typepad only gives you access to the html with their pro account but makes it really easy on their midrange account to change colors, use a picture for a banner, etc. I hate knowing that I'm committing myself to an $8.95 monthly subscription for the life of the blog. As B has begun to ask me when I'm considering a non-fiber purchase: how much yarn would that be? (And lest you think he's supporting my burgeoning yarn habit: he is not. It's simply an effective diversion from the momentary object of greed.)

I am also having an affair with Audible audiobooks. Another subscription service, but I am telling myself I can stop any time. And so far, I've been offered several free audio books, just enough to keep me hooked (isn't that what the crack dealers do? give you a free taste?). Last night I had a counseling client way out in the woods (why do I always get these in the fall, when it's so spooky?). I can get quite a chunk listened to in a two-hour commute. It even made the recent 13-hour drive to Utah really go quickly.

And I have finally committed to an mp3 player: the Creative Zen Nano Plus (this after trying and returning the iriver ifp 899, the Rio Carbon Pearl 6 gb, the iriver t30, the Zen Nano). It has most of the features I wanted, so I'm okay giving up Napster to Go. Because--yep--it's another subscription service, and unlike Audible, one in which you don't own anything at the end. I loved the browsing of music and listening to unlikely (for me) things, though. I have determined that it's the way of modern commerce to sell renting, not owning. How clever!