My mommy's growing up!

My mother is maturing, media-wise. I've walked her through the scary parts of CDs, so that now she's even asking for burned mixes and playing them in the car(!), and she's showing signs of being ready to take the next step: she was talking today about how she has all these CDs of all these artists she likes, but she wishes there was some way to play lots of different artists together, instead of a CD full of just one, and I knew immediately the word she was searching for: playlist. I mean, CD mixes can only take you so far, and then you spend all your money on blank discs, and then they wear out after like, two years, and...yeah, I'm way over CDs. So anyway, I told her, "Mom, it's time we got you an mp3 player." She seems hesitant, as she always does at any mention of new technology, but I let her have a go with mine for a few minutes, and with only minimal explanation, she was navigating the library with ease.

I'm so proud.

So I did some glancing around online, and I think I know what we need. Nothing too huge—I think a 2-4GB model will be quite sufficient—and nothing too gimmicky (no iPods or Zunes—egh), just a nice, functional mp3 player. I've found a few that seem to be about right in terms of memory, functions, etc.; I'm thinking particularly about the Creative Zen Stone Plus (with speaker!)—it's the right size and has the right features, and of course, it's adorable. And my player's a Creative as well (Vision:M), and seeing as how I've got no complaints about its performance and only minor quibbles about the user interface,* I'm relatively comfortable with the brand. So all's well and good.

Except. My mom can't use her work computer for music. Apparently the company doesn't like it when you use up all the memory on their puny little laptops with nonessential "personal" things. Pfft. Any company that classifies music as "nonessential" is highly suspect, in my book. But I digress. This leaves her with the "home" computer downstairs, which is still running—wait for it—Windows 2000 (it's actually not been that long since Windows 98 for us...oh, the memories...). And of course, no self-respecting company is going to make a player that's compatible with Windows 2000 this late in the game—they probably wouldn't even be making them for XP anymore, except Vista sucks like one of those fancy vacuum sweepers that can pick up a bowling ball. Hell, my player won't even work on the old computer, and the Vision:M was released in 2005 (that's like, millions of years ago, technologically speaking).

So I'm stuck. I feel like there has to be a way to do this, but short of getting one of those really tiny flash-drive-like players that only hold like, half a GB of data and don't have screens or navigation functions worth crap, I don't know what I can do. Damn obsolescence. Damn it, I say!

For the time being, though, I am going to have to cut off her supply of free mixes until she starts giving me the blanks to fill. I have other things to be spending my money on. Important things. Like Game Cube games.


_{*Personal preference entirely—I was very used to my old Philips machine before it bit the dust, and, being a creature of habit, I hate change.}