I used to think that I was the technological forerunner for our family. You know, the early adopter who tries out the newest tech toys first. The one who can lend advice to my other family members because of my extensive technological expertise.
Then I thought about it. Who had the first CD player in our family? My sister Wendy. In fact, not long after she got her CD player, she gave me my first CD for my birthday (Kenny G’s “Breathless” album). I would sneak into her bedroom when she wasn’t home, carefully (VERY CAREFULLY) take her Alabama’s Greatest Hits CD out of the player and put in my prized Kenny G, and listen to the clarity of the music. Then I had to have a CD player. But it turns out that I’m what Dilbert creator Scott Adams might call a “technological topper”. I had to get a better CD player. Mine had a remote control.
A few years later, who was the first person in the family to have an e-mail account? Not me. It was Wendy again. After that, who was the first person in the family to get a Palm Pilot? That would be Wendy. She bought the Palm IIIe. I followed a few months later with the Palm IIIxe — more memory (that I never used– but hey, it was better!).
Who got the first cell phone? This one I’m not sure about, but I’m pretty sure it was Wendy. Who got the first laptop computer? Wendy. Who got the first iPod? Again, Wendy.
In each case, I wasn’t far behind. But I’ve always been behind. Yes, it turns out that the technological early adopter in the family is my sister Wendy. She gets all the newest toys and from her I decide that I can’t live without whatever toy it is she has now.
Such happened recently with her iPod. She has had an iPod for quite a while now. Long enough that my brother got one. Then my parents got one. Now Christina and I have one. I think Wendy is on her second. She graduated from the 5GB iPod a Nano. Rick bought one; it was a U2 edition, which was pretty cool, but it got stolen out of his locked office.
I’ve been looking at them for a while now, and when we first heard about the possibility of a new job at my new company, Christina and I decided that if I got the job, I could get an iPod. When the new job became a more possible reality, Christina had to warn me to not take the new job simply for the iPod. 
(Don’t worry. I didn’t.)
I was going to wait to buy the iPod until after I had started my new job, but we realized that I have a ton of stuff on my work box. I love to listen to music while I work, so during the course of the two years I’ve been at this job, I brought my favorite CDs and made MP3 files out of them. I also took some of our digital camera images and used my work box to upload them to our web site, since we didn’t used to have a high-speed connection at home.
All told, I have a lot of stuff. Transferring with a 250 MB USB key is impractical, and I don’t have a CD burner at work, just your basic 20th century CD-ROM. So any data transfer was going to have to take place over USB.
Instead, we decided to go with the iPod. It gives me plenty of storage space to handle my music and all my files. I’m really excited about the iPod. I am going to start running for exercise, and I think it will be a lot of fun to run while listening to my favorite tunes.
So I wasn’t the first one in the family to get an iPod. In fact, I was the last. But mine has more storage capacity. So there. 
icon. (Not all showings of Cars are digital (about half are, depending on the location), and not all movies have been produced digitally, so only selected titles are available in digital.) Currently Megaplex Theaters had ten digital cinema auditoriums at The District, five at Jordan Commons and four at the Gateway.
