Hi folks.

So, I bought a 1 gb Shuffle during finals week of Winter quarter and have been enjoying it thoroughly since it arrived. I listen to it at work (I have a job as an alternative media editor for students with disabilities... lots of time in front of a computer deleting garbage characters the scanner puts in and turning "arc" back into "are"...), between classes (at least 1 hr 12 min), and to and from my car.

Maybe the rest of my headphones are garbage, but I was amazed how powerful those little white buds were when I got them, and now nothing else compares.

While I'm walking around with this nice spring weather, I see lots of pairs of white earbuds. Runners and joggers, other between-class students, a few faculty members, and several other students in my workplace sport the buds.

At first, when I wore mine and met eyes with another bud-wearer, I would smile. I was suddenly part of an elite club... this was special for me, as I had never been part of an economically elite club before (the government is paying for my education). I had something lots of other people had. And I paid for it with money I earned. Mine!

And then... I noticed how much more often non-bud-wearers looked at me when I had the buds in. My shuffle is usually in my fist, 'cause I change from shuffle to sequence, and I play with the volume... so it isn't in danger of being ripped off a dinky lanyard or of being swiped out of my bookbag, but... it was still a bit scary.

In broad daylight, should I be worried about using my shuffle on campus?

Am I part of something great, or am I part of the enemy?

I like those stupid little white buds because of how they sound. I feel like a walking advertisement, particularly when I wear a dark shirt (which is almost every day).

Tell me what you think.