More flist help

[magnetic_pole]

The flist was so helpful last week that I'm posting again with a question for the savvier-than-me (and I'm sure that means most of you): if I were to shop for the cheapest possible option for something portable to use to listen to podfic or podcasts while walking, what would my best options be? I don't have an iPhone (or smartphone of any sort). Is it an iPod shuffle? Is there a non-Apple option? What should I be looking for?

Other random items:

* On an exercise-related note, would anyone be interested in checking in this summer over at game_is_on? A weekly thing for June, July, and August, perhaps? Diet, exercise, healthy habits, whatever you're working on. Hm. Perhaps I should post over there. ETA: Done! Stop by if you're up for it.

* Via the Guardian, a quiz: Can you identify a book from its map? which reproduces maps (and plans) of literary locations and asks you whether you're familiar with the territory. I was not; only five of the ten were familiar to me. But fun, nevertheless.

* On a related literary note, an article that includes a brief list of the texts that Junot Diaz uses in a college class on world building, along with other Diaz comments on diversity in writing programs: Inside Junot Diaz's class at MIT. (Caveat: I know nothing about Diaz or the teaching of fiction writing, but I'm interested to see any list of texts notable for their world building.) What would you add here?

By the way, both citrus peels and baking soda have been tried in the garbage disposal with excellent results. (I need to buy some ice trays to try that final option, but that's next.) Thanks, all!

Comments

[dueltastic]

Shuffle isn't great for anything chaptered, cuz it only shuffles. Non-Apple options will be a lot cheaper, and more functional for the price. Sansa's Clipp gets really good reviews, tends to go for about $25.

[magnetic_pole]

Really, it *only* shuffles? That would drive me crazy, even for music.

I'll take a look for Sansa's Clipp, then, thanks! What's the generic name of the kind of device I'm looking for? *sheepish* M.

[dueltastic]

An MP3 player. :)

Looks like I'm off a touch, but $30 is quite doable. And check the Shuffle - the newer ones might do playing in order.

[magnetic_pole]

Thank you! (Gah! I *had* heard of MP3 players, I promise. I just...didn't quite know what they were.) And, yes, $30 sounds much better than the various Apple options. Much appreciated, D! M.

[semielliptical]

The ipod shuffle can play in order, actually. The current ipod shuffle also supports multiple playlists, which I find useful so I can switch from my music playlist to podcasts easily when I'm running. The biggest benefit of the shuffle is its built in clip and tiny size, the down side is with no screen your navigation is what's on there is pretty limited.

[magnetic_pole]

Thanks, S! :) M.

[liseuse]

I cannot help with the techie question. I have an ipod touch that I use for podcasts. (Also, I can't listen to them while walking. I can literally only listen to anything audio when sitting very still doing nothing, apart from maybe knitting something that requires no attention. Otherwise I get distracted and tune back in 20 minutes later going "what?")

I also got 5 out of 10 for the maps. I am relieved that 4 of the 5 I got wrong are books I have never read!

[magnetic_pole]

I'd wondered if folks on the flist would recognize them! I've read several in abridged, children's editions, so the maps weren't familiar, but the labels were.

The thing I hate most about technology is not even knowing the right questions to ask to get started, you know?

Interesting that you can't listen while doing anything else. I've been thinking about getting one because I've been walking on the treadmill in the basement of our apartment complex, which is the most boring way of exercising ever but frees me to be a little more distracted than I can be on the street. If I could just find a way of making it more interesting! M.

[liseuse]

I had that for a couple of them. I didn't recognise the actual map at all, but the place names were familiar!

It is really tricky. I end up sort of throwing vague search terms at google and hoping.

I can just about listen and walk somewhere if the walk is very familiar, and I have had some success whilst on exercise equipment, but only if it's something where I don't have to think at all about posture or technique - so no rowing machine or cross-trainer or whatever - because then I'm thinking about that and my brain just tunes the sound out. I can however read on a treadmill, which was handy when I was an undergraduate (or, the last time I regularly used a treadmill). But yeah, it means that I tend to be a theoretical fan of podcasts and podfic but rarely actually listen to them because if I'm going to be sat still on my bed doing nothing else, I might as well just read a book, right? And I use knitting as the time to catch up on TV.

[magnetic_pole]

You have far more exercise equipment experience than I do, L. :)

Like you, I usually feel like my odd moments could be spent reading, but the combined experience of starting to walk on the treadmill and commuting up to Baltimore this past semester made me realize there *are* these periods of half-activity that podcasts would fill nicely. (I've never really understood before exactly when folks listened to them, to be honest.) Now that I think about it, they might be good for housecleaning, too... M.

[liseuse]

Heh, it is purely because we worked out as undergraduates that if we went on a certain morning (maybe Tuesday?) you could watch the rugby boys training out of one window while on the treadmills, the hockey girls out of another whilst using the cross trainer, and the mixed squash when on something else. The rowing machines were in front of the TVs, so you could catch up on ER. It was great!

I have been known to listen to podcasts, or the BBC radio app, when baking something I know off by heart.