I went to a pre-back friday sale to K-Mart early this morning. I'd have skipped it, but some insomnia hit about 5:30am.

I got a TomTom GPS to use on my upcoming trip to Vegas. It isn't the model I really want. Target has the one I want, and if insomnia strikes again I'll try for it. But at least I have a sub-100 dollar one.

I also bought a $11 MP3 Player. It is an Eclipse brand. My wife bought a iPod Nano for a lot more money ($150?) when they first came out. This little player has good sound, but so far I haven't figured out how to navigate the directories, or how to adjust the volume.

I never had to read the manual on the iPod. On the Eclipse, here I go.  I do really like how the thing is just a USB drive. I hate having to use iTunes to copy MP3s to the iPod.

I just read the manual. It wasn't any help.

For $11, are you sure it can navigate directories?

I figured out how to adjust the volume. Pretty easy. You just hit the volume button, then press the advance or backup button. Also easy to mess up and skip to the end of the song while adjusting the volume.

Nope, no easy way to navigate that I can see. I can skip to the end of a song, then keep skipping.  I'm listening to Robert Jordan's Eye of the World books, and want to skip entire disks and chapters.

Story I heard about UPS units.

Someone relied on their TomTom unit to get them to a store, and when it took them to the wrong place, called the store to ask where they were.  When the owner gave them directions ("turn left onto Poinsettia St."), they said "But my GPS doesn't say you can turn there!"

*That* is why you are lost.

I have a cheap-ass mp3 player and that's how it navigates.
You can skip to the next/previous song, but that's about it.

I traveled for many years, often alone, with just an atlas.  Summer 2008 in Moreno Valley California I used a Garmin Nuvi.

The Nuvi was really nice. I could get anywhere quite easily.

However, the down side is that without the Nuvi, I don't think I could get back to some of the places I went. With a map I really learned how the cities were laid out. With the GPS giving me directions, the brain disconnected from the surroundings. No mental map of where anything is.

My Nuvi had battery issues. Costco took it back. Gotta love the Costco 2 year return policy!  I decided I'd buy a replacement when I had a need.

I dunno about GPS's, but Costco had to cut back on how long they'd accept electronics returns, it's 90 days here in Vancouver and in WA.

Slipped out this morning before work and bought a 300# olympic weight set.  One with the handled integral to the weights.  Picked it up for $120, which is impressive if you consider that weights are currently selling for around $1/pound right now.  I was thinking to pick up a 60# dumb-bell, but there was no special pricing on that, so I figure I'll just start adding reps with the 50 until I'm feeling flush.