Things I want and things I don't want

There is a blog called My Best Gadgets which I check out from time to time. I love gadgets. I don't often buy them, but I'm often tempted.

The other day when I checked the site this roulette game was at the top of the page. I read the description, laughed, and read it aloud to The Man. His eyes lit up.

"I WANT ONE!" he said, so I didn't say what I was going to say next. ("What kind of masochist would buy one of those when you can get perfectly adequate shocks off a doorknob?")

But more recently something turned up that I thought I might be interested in: an IC Voice Recorder With Wireless Microphone. I'm sure I could find a use for that in the classroom. I could, say, 'accidentally' leave the mic somewhere inconspicuous and pop out for a moment when the students are supposed to be doing some language task. Or - how about this - leave it in the teachers' room!

It all sounds very interesting, but actually I don't think I'll be getting one any time soon. The results are likely to be discouraging. I'd probably be deafened by the classroom results, and the teachers' room would yield up (a) silence punctuated by snores, or (b) what's his name, Chris whatever, or is it Bob? going on and on and on and ON about how wonderful a teacher he is and what crap his students are. And half the time that's why I leave the room in the first place.

I suppose I could use it for something legitimate, like, say, recording student conversations for testing purposes, but that would mean I'd have to listen to them later in my own time. I have more than 400 students, and if they did just two minutes each (six into eight goes once carry the two, six into twenty...) ... yeah, right, VERY practical.

See how I manage to talk myself out of buying stuff?

Could somebody please tell me why I do not need an iPod to replace my old tape Walkman which is playing music all wavy? I need music on my long commutes.