I bought an iPod Nano on Thursday night. It’s a big deal for me because the Cult of Apple disturbs me.

I’m not a target market for Apple products. In fact, Apple marketing efforts tend to alienate me, and the breathless, unquestioned awe Apple fans have about the company’s products creeps me out. And the iTunes Music Store? Dead to me.

I was considering using the criteria chip used to purchase his MP3 player — and given my laziness, I probably would have just bought that same model — but I wasn’t interested features.

I wanted something cheap to take with me on the approximately 9-hour flights to and from Honolulu in April. I thought about an iPod Shuffle, but the lack of an interface would have driven me crazy on the plane. So I went with the cheapest Nano available (2GB Silver). What can I say? The ease of use won me over, and it supports UTF-8, which I like for all those pesky Japanese files I have.

It came in handy yesterday. Every time I bring my car in for servicing, I know I’m going to spend half the day at the dealership. So I bring books to read while I wait. It took five hours for this particular visit because I was getting my air conditioning recharged and the engine belt replaced. The only way I stayed sane was by listening to Shiina Ringo on the Nano.

Given the amount of Shiina Ringo on the player at the moment, I figured I should change the default name to 林檎ちゃん. 林檎 means "apple" in Japanese.

The Nano came with a pair of Apple logo stickers. The only apple branding I want to stick on anything is this one: [椎名林檎 性的ヒーリング]