'Bout a Hundred Dollars: I've been guzzling Diet Pepsi at an alarming rate to get Pepsi points to buy MP3s from Amazon. The problem is the only some MP3s are eligible. When I went to buy the latest Fountains of Wayne (Traffic and Weather -- awesome) I couldn't buy the whole album at once, I had to download each individual song. Can't complain if it's for free, I suppose. Thievery Corporation's Mirror Conspiracy wasn;t available on MP3 so I actually had to order the used CD. I also picked up Firesign Theatre's comedy classic from the sixties, Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers. The album consists of two tracks, one for each side and Amazon had them priced like individual song tracks -- 99 cents each; so I got the entire album for $1.98. (This is me high-fiving myself.)

Zune let me down for the first time. My latest CD purchase, The Avalanches' Since I Left You is gapless. That is to say, each track runs seamlessly into the next with no silence in between. Zune (the player, not the application) apparently doesn't support this, so as I listen I get an annoying instant of silence between each track. The Zune application does support gapless playback, so I'm hoping MS will update the player software also, eventually.

I'm generally very pleased with my music situation at the moment. I stumbled into something good with my $99 refurbished Zune. I snagged the Zune off Woot, the semi-famous, one-sale-item-per-day site, and since then I have been checking every day. Sure enough, another offer came up that I jumped on.

I have been looking for a cheap-ish point-and-shoot camera. My Nikon DLSR is still dear to my heart, but there are times when I just don't want to risk it -- like out on a wet and wild catamaran ride off Key West -- or lug it around, like an evening out with friends. Well, what should appear on Woot but a refurb'ed Kodak 10mp point and shoot for $99? That's perfect. I snagged one -- coffee colored, for no good reason. Now, if I lose it - oh well, I'm out a hundred bucks. Sad, but I'll live.

In fact, $100 seems to be about the sweet spot for gadgets in my life. My cell service is T-Mobile prepaid. I drop a hundred dollars up front and at .10/minute voice and .05/text message, it gets me through about six months. So my entire phone service costs me about $200 per year. I recently picked up a new cell phone when my five year old discontinued Siemens gave up the ghost. I got a keen-looking (I can say "keen", I'm old enough) Motorola RAZR on special for, yeah you guessed it, $99.

To you folks targeting spam, you now know the number that will get my attention.