I bought some e-waste!

I've made my love of unitasking doohickeys known. MP3 players - or digital music players, as they're called more currently and generally, are the finest class of pocket doodad we've produced to date. To me. I love listening to songs on repeat, and I hate being interrupted in this pursuit. Any device that plays music but doesn't deliver email is a huge win for me.

Related to this interest, I'm also a huge fan of recreational tinkering. In fact, that's one way I apply cooling to my brain when I've burnt it out on writing too much. The other major one is long rides on my bike, which is an incorrigible nugget and often demands that I tinker anyway. I call it The Grunch, and will soon stencil "In Grunch We Crunch" on it in an allusion to its propensity to collect road dirt and fall apart.

I've amassed a little collection on MP3 players and their associated bibs and bobs as part of the intersection between these hobbies, and while my interest is not limited to iPods they make up the bulk of the collection. Sony Walkmen walk in and out fairly often, usually rehomed with friends because their drag and drop capabilities make them very user friendly.

But I'm running out of nuggets to service.

And I'm getting increasingly overheated with the book.

So of course I went on Mercari and bought a pile of trash. As I anticipate the arrival of my trash shipment, let's go through what I'm expecting, from 'probably straight to recycling' to 'Well well well!'

Three unidentifiable genero-chunks. I don't know who these guys are. I'll plug them in if I am at all able and scrape them for any music, but I don't foresee getting use out of them. The UIs on these are almost always awful, and the storage tops out really low. The availability of parts is appropriately dismal, and most just fall apart and don't go back together right.

Ugh. Three Touches, it looks like. Do you love shedding blood for a final product that will be shaped funny forever because the body metal is so soft? I don't. These are Instagram props at best if they're fucked.

~Now the shit I consider myself to have paid for!~

A pair of Sony Boys in... okay cosmetic condition. These are drag and drop and the UI/longevity is solid. These are my faves to give a quick cosmetic recondition and gift to friends. I've never had to take one apart, but I did buy them to amuse myself.

Twooooooooooo Wiimote-shaped gen 1 Shuffles! I don't have one of these for the collection yet. One of them looks like it's been used internally. The shape is novel and I could see fucking it into a gym bag to be a desperate backup player, but the storage is on a board and thus not expandable, and all you can really get for parts is the battery. If the board's cooked, it's over.

A gen 3 Shuffle as well! Another gap in my collection, and I like them best out of all the Shuffles. They just feel nice, and the clip is cool. This is one I'd consider using if all it needs is a $10 battery. Wish it was a fun color, but alas.

A 3rd gen Nano. A nightmare to repair, but so cute. Gotta solder sometime. 

One suspiciously attractive fifth gen iPod. This sold the lot to me, no lie. How is it in a bundle with the nugtrio and the rectally applied Shuffle? Has it been cosmetically reconditioned and abandoned as a project before it got running? The screen's not obviously obliterated or bulgy. I mean, there's no reverse angle so the back plate could have stopped a bullet for all I know. But it's weird. And I wanna see what's so wrong with it that it's here. Besides, the face plate and click wheel and screen are worth the spend (~40 USD) on the whole lot if they're usable. 

More as the situation develops.