Schemes and Schemes and Schemes

I like little schemes. When I want something and don't necessarily have the money for it, I often try to think of little schemes to get what I want, to make what I want happen.

I am the Bush Administration on a much smaller scale.

For instance, right now I am listening to a lot of audio books. However, they are extremely expensive, if you haven't noticed (and most of you, understandably, have not). Since I am a starving artist and artisty types are most definitely on the broke side, I knew I'd need a plan to get what I wanted.

I thought, hmmm, since books on CD are very expensive, why don't I downgrade to audio cassette?

I did and the experience has been good so far, although the medium isn't as portable and succinct as I would like (succint meaning that it is hard to skip around for all of the rewinding and fast forwarding and such). I bought a tape walkman online for three dollars and jumped for joy when it arrived.

However, as it turns out, those buggers need batteries to run, by God, and I don't have the liquid assets - cash - to waste on those alkaline beauties, even the cheap ones.

And, it looks quite embarrassing to sport a tape walkman in polite society. I live in Athens. It is tres stupid to not have the latest technology, and I have taken not one, but two, steps back in that regard. I have gone down from the mp3 device through the cd player to the cassette. Wow. I manage to amaze even myself sometimes.

But those are the drawbacks. The + signs are as follows:

It's cheap to buy books on tape, and my local library is full of them, even up-to-date books. Well, if Harry Potter counts.

I bought From a Buick 8 on cassette for about $.94, and that ain't half bad. Also, it's sort of fun in that not-really-cool-but-I-do-it-anyway sort of way. I don't mind, and it is sort of the uncool cool that so many people strive for. Actually it's not as cool as I would have hoped, although I think I'm on to something.

Don't be surprised if you come to visit and I'm writing with quills and watching Brian's Song on Betamax, okay?